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PHILIP THE SECOND, OF SPAIN. See page 95. 



Seven Historic Ages 



OR 



TALKS ABOUT 



KINGS, QUEENS, AND BARBARIANS 



BY 



ARTHUR OILMAN, M. A. 

AUTHOR OF "first STEPS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE' 



^^ I dottit not throtigh the Ages otie increasing picr^ose rrms, 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process oftJie suits''^ 

LocKSLEY Hall 



Ji ,'/'.' <<» 






NEW YORK A 
PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON 

1874 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR : 

FIRST STEPS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. For the use of 
Schools. I vol., i6mo, pp. 233, with charts. $1.00. 



In Preparation : 

FIRST STEPS IN HISTORY, i vol., i6mo. Uniform with " First 
Steps in English Literature." For the use of Schools. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

Arthur Oilman, 
In the OfBce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



y^ 



2- 



^ 



A^l 



RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 




PREFACE. 




HEN the celebrated Doctor Johnson 
was asked by a friend if he would ad- 
vise one to read a voluminous work 
on . China, the philosopher replied, " Why yes, 
as one reads such books — that is to say, con- 
sult it." 

Of many large books with which our library 
shelves are burdened, we may say the same. 
Large books are to be consulted — small ones 
read. The opinion appears to be growing, 
that the worth of our volumes increases in 
proportion as their size decreases. 

Specially is this true of works of history for 
the young. If the author can fix the mind 
upon certain salient points, important char- 
acters, or great eras, he may expect to make 
a vivid impression upon the young imagination. 



iv PREFACE. 

In this volume an attempt is made to pre- 
sent a series of grand events in the history of 
the world from the Golden Age of Greece to 
the palmy days of France. 

The sketches are merely suggestive, but it 
is hoped they will in some degree fulfill the 
three offices of history, in giving healthful 
pleasure, educational stimulus, and moral les- 
sons. 

The episodes delineated must be familiar to 
all who aspire to be considered well-educated. 
If the imagination be stirred enough to lead 
the young reader to further and more careful 
studies, he will not regret the time spent on 
the little volume now open before him. 

" Books that yoti may carry to the fire, and 
hold readily in your hand, are the most useftcl, 
after all," said Doctor Johnson, in another 
place. 





CONTENTS. 



Chapter I 

The Golden Age of Greece. 

Pericles, the brilliant young Democrat. 
Cimon, the ambitious Aristocrat. 



Chapter II 

The Golden Age of Rome. : 
The Punic Wars. 



Chapter III. 

The Golden Age of Rome. 
The Three-man Power. 
The Emperor Augustus. 

Chapter IV. 

The Dark Ages. 

Three Barbarians. 



PAGE 

7 



14 



22 



Chapter V. . . 

The Dark Ages. 
Three Kings. 

Chapter VI. 

The Dark Ages. 

Two more Kings. 



Chapter VII 

The Dark Ages. 

A Hermit and a Pilgrimage. 
The Crusades. 
I 



31 



43 



SI 



60 



2 CONTENTS. 

Chapter VIII .69 

The Dark Ages. 

Just before Dawn. 
The Morning Star. 

Chapter IX. 77 

The Age of Leo X, 
Sunrise. 

A Great Church. • 

A Great Reformation. 

Chapter X. 87 

The Age of Charles V. 

Hernando Cortez and Mexico. 
Philip II. 

Chapter XI. 96 

The Golden Age of England. 
Three Queens. 
Queen Mary. 
Good Queen Bess. 
Mary the beautiful Queen of Scots. 

Chapter XII. . • 109 

The Golden Age of England. 
The Puritans. 

Chapter XIII 119 

The Golden Age of France, 
Louis XIV. 

Chapter XIV 129 

Co7tclusion, 

List of the Characters mentioned. 

One Hundred Dates 142 




ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Philip the Second of Spain . . . Frontispiece ^y 
Athens as seen from Mars' Hill . . . . ii "^ 

The Forum at Rome 25 -^ 

Mohammed 64*^ 



John Wiclif 



75 



•^ 



St. Peter's Church at Rome 82 '-^ 



Leyden Street, Plymouth, Mass. 
The Palace at Versailles 



no 



125 



y 





SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 




CHAPTER I. 

THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE. 

Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
And eloquence. Milton. 

HEN I get to New York," said little 
Gerty Gladwyn, " I shall ask Aunt 
Twinie how old Pericles was. I'm sure 
she doesn't know ! " 

" What do you mean, Gerty .? " I asked. 

" Don't you remember our talk in the li- 
brary ? " she replied. 

" Oh, yes ! Well, how old was he ? " 

" Five hundred years." 

" No, no, no ! I told you that Pericles lived 
in the fifth century before Christ was born, not 
that he was five hundred years old." 

" Now I remember. And you said he lived 
in Greece, and that Greece is a country beyond 
Rome, where you went when Lily was a baby, 
and before Pearl was born." 



6 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" Very well, my dear, would you like to know 
more of Pericles, and of his country ? " I in- 
quired. 

" Oh, yes ! " Gerty replied. " When we go 
back to the Mount, you will take us into the 
library, and tell us, will you not, papa } " 

It was a month after this chat in the cars, 
when the Thanksgiving turkey had been sacri- 
ficed, and all their little aunts and uncles had 
kissed and bidden good-by to Gerty and Pearl 
and Lily, that we found ourselves in the library 
at the Mount, looking out of its cheerful win- 
dows, over the frozen lake and snowy hills. 
True to her tastes, Gerty wanted papa to read 
to her. Lily wished him to talk and show her 
pictures, and Pearl preferred to amuse herself 
by pulling the postage stamps from the envel- 
opes in the waste-paper basket. So little Pearl 
was transferred to the nursery, and papa talked 
with her older sisters about the Golden Age of 
Athens, and Pericles, the Greek Democrat. 

" Pericles lived at Athens between four and 
five centuries before Christ," I began. 

" What is a century } " interrupted Lily. 

" A century is a hundred years." 

" Oh, how long a time ! " exclaimed Gerty. 

" Pericles lived more than four hundred years 
before Christ, and he was so remarkable a 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE. 7 

young man, and accomplished so much for Ath- 
ens that the period is called the Age of Pericles, 
as if he were the man above all others who 
had benefited the city. 

" Let us look for a moment at the map. Here 
is a very great sea, between Africa and Europe. 
It is called the Mediterranean Sea, because it 
lies between these two great bodies of land. 
You see two promontories that thrust them- 
selves out into the sea." 

" I see one," said Gerty. " It looks just like 
a boot, and is called Italy." 

^' Here is the other. Its shape is very irreg- 
ular, and it is called Greece. This is the coun- 
try we are talking about. You notice that it is 
nearly divided by the long gulf of Corinth. In 
the southern end you see the country of Laco- 
nia, and its capital, Sparta. Athens is in the 
southeast corner of the northern half, and was 
a very remarkable city. 

" Sparta was ruled by a sort of aristocracy. 
That is, a comparatively small number of the 
inhabitants, who considered themselves better 
than the others, made slaves of them, and then 
governed the land just as they pleased. 

" At Athens the case was different. All the 
people united to make the laws there, and to 
elect the rulers, although a few were found even 



8 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

there who wished to have matters all their own 
way. 

" The chief man of this aristocratic party in 
Athens, at the time of which I am speaking, 
was a distinguished general named Cimon, and 
he does not* appear to have been a very bad 
man, either. 

" Among the democrats the leader was Peri- 
cles, and there was a constant strife between 
him and his party, on the one side, and Cimon 
and his party on the other. Pericles was of an 
old and noble family, and must have had some 
inducements to join the aristocrats, but he 
showed his good sense by taking the part of 
the people, and making himself one with them. 

" Four hundred and sixty-four years before 
Christ, the people of Sparta found themselves 
in trouble, because the inhabitants of Messenia, 
which you see on the map just west of Laco- 
nia, made war against them. In their trouble 
they sent to Athens for help, which was a 
strange thing for them to do, because they had 
just before that been making arrangements to 
fight against the Athenians." 

" Did the Spartans get the help they asked 
for .'' " Gerty inquired. 

" Yes, the aristocratic party happened to be 
in power, and Cimon was permitted to go to 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE. g 

help subdue the Messenians. The Spartans 
had twice before had wars with these people, 
and had succeeded in making slaves of the 
whole of them. This time the war was carried 
on for ten years, until at last the poor Messe- 
nians were defeated again. But Cimon had not 
done himself credit in the eyes of the Spartan 
aristocrats, and had been sent home before the 
war ended. 

" During the absence of Cimon, young Pericles 
had been very prominent at all the public meet- 
ings in Athens. He was fine looking, very 
wise and prudent, and very eloquent. The cit- 
izens of Athens had become exceedingly fond 
of fine speakers, and as they prided themselves 
upon their good taste, they were very ready to 
receive such a young man as Pericles. These 
reasons made it impossible for Cimon to gain 
popularity when he came back from the south. 
He had no success to boast of, and though he 
spent large sums of money to win the favor of 
the people, and labored hard, he failed." 

" Did Pericles spend as much money to make 
himself popular .? " asked Gerty. 

" No," said I, " Pericles was too honorable to 
resort to such means, and though he wished to 
have the good opinion of all, he preferred to 
earn it by giving them means of enjoyment 



10 SEVEJSr HISTORIC AGES. 

that they could call their own, rather than that 
they should be dependent upon rich men, even 
if they were as liberal as Cimon. By not de- 
scending to any low tricks he retained the re- 
spect of the citizens, even when they did not 
agree with him in opinion." 

" What became of Cimon ? " said Lily. 

" In the year 459," said I, " Cimon was ban- 
ished from Athens, which humbled the aristo- 
crats very much. Whenever there was a public 
meeting, this class was present in as large num- 
bers as possible, always managing to sit in a 
compact body, and not mix with the mass of 
the people. By this means they were able to 
act in concert, and to oppose more effectively 
popular measures. It was not long before they 
brought themselves into contempt, and lost all 
the influence they ever had. Pericles gained 
as the aristocrats lost ground, and henceforward 
as long as he lived he remained at the head of 
public aflairs in Athens." 

" I'm glad of that ! " exclaimed Gerty. 

"What did he do when he had gained so 
much power } " asked Lily. 

" I will tell you. He had spent his earlier 
years in such studies as he thought would be 
useful in public life, had been trained by Damon, 
Zeno, Anaxagoras, and other distinguished 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE. II 

teachers, and when he came to exercise an in- 
fluence almost unHmited, he was able to use it 
rightly." 

" How did he exercise it ? " Gerty asked 
again. 

" He thought," said I, " that Athens ought 
to be the seat of great political power, the home 
of the fine arts, and the centre of taste and re^ 
finement. He wished, also, that the people 
should be proud of their city, and interested in 
the doings of state. All these ends he labored 
hard to accomplish." 

" How long did he govern the city } " Gerty 
inquired. 

" Pericles controlled affairs in Athens," I 
replied, " for forty years, during which time he 
erected many wonderful buildings, and caused 
the production of works of art, that are now 
scattered throughout the great cities of Europe, 
where for hundreds of years they have been 
the admiration of all who have studied them. 
They are now accepted as models of beauty 
and grace, and are as yet unsurpassed. 

" At this period, literature, architecture, paint- 
ing, and sculpture rose to the highest perfec- 
tion they have yet reached, so that even in 
ruins, the monuments now found in Athens 
call forth unqualified praise. What must they 



12 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES, 

have been when fresh from the studio of the 
artist ! 

" I cannot mention all the great men of this 
golden age, but among them, none stand higher 
than Phidias, the greatest sculptor of all an- 
tiquity. Under his direction the Parthenon, 
or temple of Minerva, and numerous other 
unrivaled buildings were erected on the Acrop- 
olis. Some of his works are now carefully 
preserved at the British Museum, in London, 
where they were deposited in 1803 by Lord 
Elgin." 

"Athens must have been a busy city in 
those days ! " exclaimed Gerty, with interest. 

" Yes," said I, " it was. The construction of 
so many buildings caused the whole city to be 
full of business and animation. All classes of 
workmen were employed, and Plutarch, the 
historian, tells us that plenty was diffused 
among persons of every rank and condition. 

Another distinguished man of this age was 
Socrates. He was what is called a philoso- 
pher, or lover of wisdom, and is thought by 
many to have been the most just, the most 
exalted, the completest type of humanity to 
which classical antiquity, with its wonderful 
creations, ever gave birth." 

" How long was Pericles so popular } " Lily 
asked. 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE. 13 

" The popularity of Pericles continued until 
his death, which occurred four hundred and 
twenty-nine years before Christ, although some 
were at times jealous of him, and he was unsuc- 
cessfully assailed by his enemies. Two years 
before his death Athens became involved in a 
war, brought about by the envy of the neigh- 
bor states, who did not like to see so great 
prosperity there. This gave much trouble and 
was effectual in putting an end to advance. 
So the city never prospered again as it had 
done during the forty years of which we have 
been speaking. 

" Now, my children, if you have been inter- 
ested in this short history of one Golden Age, 
I will tell you at another time of the Augustan 
Age of Rome, and, in the mean time, you will 
do well to read any good book that will tell 
you more about Pericles and his age." 






CHAPTER II. 

THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 
THE PUNIC WARS. 

In the most high and pahny state of Rome, 
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell. — Hamlet. 

OU said you would tell us about the 
Golden Age of Rome, papa," said 
Gerty, as she opened the library door 
on Christmas morning. 

" I love to hear about golden things," chimed 
in Lily, and little Pearl trotted after to ask if 
she could look at papa's watch, for she loved 
golden things too. 

" Do you remember," I began, " what I told 
you about the Golden Age of Athens ? " 

" Yes," said Gerty, " but I had rather hear 
you talk about Rome, because you have been 
there, and because I loved to hear mamma read 
the letters you sent us from there." 

" What were the people of Rome doing, when 
Pericles was ruling in Athens ? " inquired Lily. 

" That was a long time before the Age of 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 1 5 

Augustus, of which I promised to tell you," 
said I, " but, since you wish it, I will answer 
your question. The city of Rome was founded 
three hundred years before Pericles was born, 
or seven hundred and fifty-three years before 
Christ. It was just at the time that Isaiah 
lived in the land of Judea, and when he wrote 
his sublime prophecies of the coming of our 
Saviour. At that time Sennacherib was king 
of Assyria, and Hezekiah was king of Judah." 

" I have read about this in the Bible," said 
Gerty. 

" The early history of Rome is not trust- 
worthy," I continued, "and no one can be 
quite sure of what was really done there. The 
people were divided into two classes, called 
patricians and plebeians, at a very early period. 
The patricians were members of the original 
families of the city, and formed an aristocracy 
of blood, while the plebeians were the common 
people, and were of far greater numbers." 

" I don't know what an ' aristocracy ' is," said 
Lily. 

" A true aristocracy would be a government 
in which the best people should rule, but as it 
is difficult to find out who are the best people, 
it has become a government in which a few 
rule over a great many. I told you about the 



1 6 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

aristocrats of Athens. They pretended to be 
descendants of heroes that no one knew any- 
thing about. The aristocrats of Rome pre- 
tended to have descended from those who first 
settled the country. After they had once ob- 
tained power and riches, they had advantages 
to teach their children, and to make them wise 
and wealthy, that the plebeians did not pos- 
sess." 

" I should think the poor people never could 
have got any power at all," Gerty said, inter- 
rupting me. 

" Not long after the time of Pericles," said I, 
" the plebeians of Rome in some way got the 
idea that they ought to have something to 
say about the government, and they troubled 
the patricians more or less until, in the year 
452, a few of their representatives were sent 
over to Greece to study the laws there. When 
they returned the Roman laws were changed, 
the old officers gave up their places, and ten 
men called decemvirs, were appointed to rule. 
They pleased the people very much at first, but 
after a while they became so haughty and ar- 
bitrary that their tyranny could not be allowed, 
and they were put out of office." 

" I am glad for the poor people ! " exclaimed 
Lily. 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 1 7 

" It was not far from this time," said I, " that 
the barbarians who Hved in the mountains 
north of Rome came down in great numbers 
and overthrew the city, leaving it in ruins. 
The inhabitants who remained were dispirited, 
and were with difficulty kept from going some- 
where else to live. If they had done so, there 
would have been no Golden Age of Rome, for 
there would have been no Rome, — only a heap 
of ruins." 

" The city was built again, however, but 
very carelessly, for the streets were narrow and 
crooked, and the houses low and mean." 

" What a shame that the horrid barbarians 
spoiled so fine a city, and gave the Romans so 
much trouble ! " interrupted Gerty. " I should 
not like to have them come here and burn up 
our house with all our clothes and books and 
beautiful wax dolls." 

" Nor our paper dolls and new muffs," added 
Lily. 

" There is no fear of such a thing nowa- 
days, but then people were rude and loved to 
burn and destroy. 

^' I see that I cannot tell you about the times 
of Augustus to-day, because you have asked so 
many questions about what occurred before 
his day. He did not begin to rule until thirty 



1 8 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

years before Christ, and the city passed through 
two periods before that. The first is called 
the Heroic period, and the second the period 
of Degeneracy." 

" I don't know what ' heroic ' means," — "I 
don't know what 'degeneracy' means," ex- 
claimed Gerty and Lily at once. 

" You know that a hero is one who is brave 
and does great deeds. A nation is called he- 
roic when it is valorous, large-hearted, and does 
great deeds. If the man should afterwards 
grow mean or cowardly, he would be said to 
degenerate or go backward. So it was with the 
Romans, as we shall see." 

" Tell us about it, please," said Gerty. 

" About three hundred and forty years before 
Christ," I continued, " they became involved in 
wars with the people who lived north and south 
of them, and in less than a hundred years these 
people had all been conquered by Rome. Then 
a new set of wars came on. 

If you look over the Mediterranean Sea you 
will find in Africa a city called Tunis. Not 
far from that place there was in ancient times 
a city of importance called Carthage. It had 
been settled by the people from Tyre, — of 
which we read in the Bible, and its name meant 
New City. The inhabitants were called Phoe- 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 1 9 

nicians by the Romans, and were great mer- 
chants and business men, sending their ships 
into every part of the world. Their language 
was called Punic. The people became wealthy 
and powerful, and could hardly fail of getting 
into war in those days, for nations were even 
more jealous of each other than they are now." 

" Did war actually break out .'' " said Lily. 

" Yes," said I, " a war broke out between the 
people of Rome and Carthage in the year 265 
and lasted twenty-two years. At first the Ro- 
mans v/ere defeated, but in the end they con- 
quered, though at the cost of an immense sum 
of money and a great many lives. After a peace 
of twenty-two years a new war broke out, and, 
after seventeen years of fighting, Carthage was 
again defeated. Then there was another peace, 
and it lasted fifty-two years. At the end of that 
time a Roman general named Scipio, invaded 
Africa, attacked Carthage, took it by storm, 
burned it to the ground, and sold the people for 
slaves. Then he passed a plough over the place, 
and sowed salt in the furrows." 

" Oh, how terrible ! What did he plough up 
the city and sow it with salt for } " asked Gerty. 

" He did so as an indication that it should 
never be built again, but should remain barren 
ruins forever." 



20 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" I think Scipio was a cruel, mean man," said 
Lily, " and I don't want to hear any more about 
him." 

" I will not tell you any more about him. 
While these wars, which were called the first, 
second, and third Punic wars were going on, the 
people of Rome became more rich, learned, and 
civilized than they had ever been before. They 
never equaled the Greeks in intellectual cul- 
ture, though they imitated them, because they 
found greater pleasure in the theatre and in 
fights of men and animals, than in the produc- 
tions of the mind." 

"What occurred next .? " asked Gerty. 

" After the Punic wars were over," said I, 
" the Romans indulged in luxury of all kinds. 
The rich ruled over the poor, and the land was 
tilled by slaves captured in war. The free, 
honest, substantial farmers of old times disap- 
peared, and there was great distress and misery. 
A war occurred called the Social war, because 
it was between the different classes of society. 
Two wars called Civil wars also occurred, and 
finally Julius Caesar, who had gained great 
victories in Gaul and Britain, became chief 
ruler of the Empire for life, and was called the 
Father of his Country. In the spring of the 
year 54 before Christ, Julius Caesar was killed by 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 21 

one of his friends, Brutus. This brings us to 
the time when Augustus began to reign." 

" Please go on, papa." 

" Not to-day. The nation was now in a state 
of degeneracy. The city was full of crime and 
luxury, and there is nothing 'golden' about 
the picture. So we will leave it until another 
time." 





CHAPTER III. 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 




THE AUGUSTAN ERA. 

But yesterday, the word of C^sar might 

Have stood against the world. — A ntony and Cleopatra. 

OU told US, papa, that Julius Caesar was 
killed by one of his friends named 
Brutus. I have been reading of a 
great marble statue that has been regarded for 
three thousand years as one at the foot of which 
this was done." 

" Are you quite sure you read that ? " I asked 
Gerty, when she made the above declaration. 

" Yes, here is the book. It is one of your 
old Guides," she replied. 

" I see you are correct, my dear ; but the 
guide-book is wrong. I told you Caesar was 
assassinated forty-four years before Christ, and 
you know it is eighteen hundred and sixty-nine 
years after his birth now. How long ago does 
that make Caesar's death } " 

" Oh ! I see ; it is nineteen hundred and thir- 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 23 

teen years ! " exclaimed Lily, who had been 
quietly listening. 

" You learn from this that there are errors in 
some books. Here is one that would have told 
you better than the guide-book. It is called a 
" Brief Biographical Dictionary," and contains 
twenty-three thousand names and the dates at 
which the characters lived.^ Whenever you 
hear of any one of whom you know very little, 
this book will tell you when he lived, and if you 
gain the habit of consulting it, you will acquire 
a great deal of knowledge." 

" I suppose," said Gerty, " there was a great 
deal of trouble in Rome when the father of his 
country was killed. Were any others put to 
death .? " 

" We shall come to that in a few moments. 
When Caesar was buried, one of his kinsmen 
Mark Antony, made a very eloquent and artful 
speech to the people in praise of their dead 
ruler. He distributed a great many presents 
to the people and thus gained their favor." 

" Did all the citizens favor Antony, papa } " 
asked Gerty. 

" The Senate opposed him, and conferred re- 
wards upon the conspirators." 

" What are ' conspirators ' } " asked Gerty. 

1 Published by Hurd and Houghton, New York. 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 2$ 

Among them was Cicero, whose head and right 
hand were placed on the rostrum in the Forum." 

" Please tell us what the rostrum was," Gerty 
asked. " You saw it, did you not, when you 
were in Rome ? " 

" I went to the spot where the rostrum was," 
I replied, " but it has changed so much that 
one can gather little idea of its former splendor. 
It was the stage from which the orators ad- 
dressed the people, and was situated in the 
place of public meetings called the Forum. 
Some of the pavement and columns are there 
now, and they are of the most beautiful marble 
I ever saw." 

" Aunt Giulia had some ornaments of mar- 
ble, when she came home : were the columns 
like that } " Lily inquired. 

" Some of those ornaments," I answered, 
*' were made of pieces found in the Forum, for 
the buildings are so ruined that pieces are con- 
stantly breaking off. 

" I told you that Antony was a bad man. 
He was very reckless and dissipated. Augus- 
tus, on the other hand, was a cool calculator, 
and it was not long before he managed to over- 
come both his companions, and to make him- 
self sole ruler of the Roman world." 
^^ "I am very anxious to know how he ruled 
the city," Gerty remarked. 



26 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

"When he found himself the only ruler," I 
continued, " he had no one to fear very much, 
for, as we have seen, the able men had all been 
destroyed. He was crafty enough to make the 
people think him a republican ruler, and did 
not call himself king. The world has been 
unable to decide what his true character was. 
Some think he was a hypocrite all through life, 
while others contend that he only used bad 
means to gain power, and then began to be 
good. This is not the way men generally act. 
If a tyrant gains power by improper means, he 
usually exercises it in improper ways. When 
you see any book that has any account of Au- 
gustus, you will do well to read it, and see 
whether you can decide the question." 

" Did you ever see any of the fine build- 
ings that were made when Augustus was Em- 
peror .? " inquired Gerty. 

" I rode," said I, " over some of the solid 
bridges and roads, and saw some of the won- 
derful aqueducts and temples that were made 
then. The water I drank came through one of 
those aqueducts, and there are many long rows 
of arches that formerly supported others which 
are now in ruins. Some of them are forty miles 
long, and reach far away into the mountains." 

" Oh, how I wish I could go to Rome ! " ex- 
claimed both the children together. 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 27 

" Did you see any of the heathen temples, 
papa ? " Gerty asked. 

" I saw a number of them in ruins," I said, 
" but there is one which is used for Christian 
worship now, of which I will tell you. It was 
built by a nephew of Augustus, and called the 
Pantheon, which meant the temple of all the 
gods. The best judges say it is one of the 
noblest triumphs of mind over matter in the 
world. It has stood firm through wars, fires, 
and earthquakes ; and though it has been 
stripped of most of its decorations, it charms 
the beholder by its grandeur and beauty. " 

" Does it look like our church } " inquired 
Lily. 

"Not at all. It is circular in shape, with 
walls twenty feet thick, and is surmounted by 
a dome. The top of the dome has an opening 
in it, forty feet wide, which is twice the width 
of many houses in New York. This is one 
hundred and fifty feet from the floor, and lets 
in the light and air, and rain also, when that 
falls." 

" I should think that would spoil the carpet," 
exclaimed Gerty. 

"And the cushions in the pews," added 
Lily. 

" There is no danger of that," said I, " for 



28 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

there are no pews nor carpets nor cushions, nor 
are there in any of the churches in Rome, old 
or new. The walls and floor and high dome 
are all of solid stone." 

Lily thought it must be very cold there in 
winter. 

" And do all the people stand up } " Gerty 
wished to know. 

" Generally they stand," I replied, " but there 
are sometimes chairs that may be hired to sit 
on. There are two obelisks in Rome," I con- 
tinued, " that came from Egypt. One of them 
is said to be as old as the time of Joseph and 
Moses. Augustus brought them there at a 
great expense. He built a great many fine 
buildings that we cannot even mention, and 
boasted that he found the city brick and left it 
marble." 

" I can see," exclaimed Gerty, " why this was 
called a Golden Age, if the city was so greatly 
improved. Please tell us a little about the 
writers of the time of Augustus." 

" First there was Virgil, who wrote a poem 
on farming, and another which is called the 
" yEneid," after the style of the greatest of the 
Greek poets. Homer. They are both studied 
in schools and colleges now. Horace was an- 
other writer, and his humorous poems and 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROME. 29 

letters are also studied now. Then there was 
Ovid, who was educated at Athens, and who 
wrote first love poems, and stories about the 
gods, and some short pieces. Titus Livius, 
Sallust, and Cornelius Nepos were historians. 
The first composed a complete history of Rome 
in many volumes. Sallust wrote accounts of 
the wars of Jugurtha and Catiline, and Corne- 
lius Nepos wrote biographies of great men, be- 
sides some history." 

" Did Rome ever become greater than it was 
at the time we have been speaking of 1 " asked 
Gerty. 

" It was not long," said I, " before it began to 
lose its high position, and in a hundred or two 
years it had become much inferior. The 
Golden Age did not last. But it was in one 
respect the brightest period in the history of 
the world, for the plains of Judea were then 
pressed by those * blessed feet which were 
nailed for our advantage on the accursed cross.' 
A brighter light shone from the mountains of 
Galilee, than proud Rome could boast — a light 
which has enlightened all the ages, and will 
shine until 

" The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces. 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve ; 



30 



SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 



And, like an insubstantial pageant faded, 
Leave not a rack behind ! " 

" One question more, papa : when did Au- 
gustus die ? " said Gerty, 

" He lived until he was seventy-six years old, 
and died fourteen years after Christ's birth." 





CHAPTER IV. 




THE DARK AGES. 

THREE BARBARIANS. 

His rude hut by the Danube lay, 
There were his young barbarians all at play, 
There was their Dacian mother. — Childe Harold. 

N the day that President Grant was 
inaugurated, the snow fell so fast, and 
the wind blew so hard, that Gerty and 
Lily and Pearl could not go out, and asked 
pkpa to talk to them again about the times 
long ago. 

" Will you tell us more about Rome, papa } " 
asked Gerty. 

" No," I replied ; " if you wish to know more 
about that city I will give you books to read. 
To-day I shall tell you of three men of whom 
you will hear more when you are older. You 
remember finding Italy on the map once, let 
me see if you can do it again." 

" Here it is ! " exclaimed Lily, rather proudly. 

" In the southern part," I continued, " you 



32 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

see the city of Cosenza. It lies on the little 
river Crate that runs northward, and empties 
into the gulf of Taranto. Just where you see 
the city another river enters the Crate, called 
the Busento. The city is very strongly forti- 
fied, and contains about nine thousand inhab- 
itants." 

" What kind of a country is it, there papa ? " 
asked Lily. 

" You know, my dears, that Italy is a very 
beautiful country, and this part is no exception. 
Cosenza lies in a picturesque valley ; the hills 
are covered with graceful vines, from which 
wine is made, and the climate is delightful. 
It is more than a hundred miles south of 
Naples. Fourteen hundred years ago a very 
singular occurrence took place there." 

" Do tell us what it was, papa ! Now, Pearl, 
be quiet ! " exclaimed Gerty, impatient to hear 
the story. 

"At the time of which I spoke, there came 
one day to the banks of the river Busento a 
great many rough men with uncombed hair and 
shaggy beards. They began to dig, and kept 
busy, I don't know how long, until they had 
made what we should have called a great canal, 
and when it was done they turned the river 
into it." 



THE DARK AGES. 33 

"That must have left the old stream dry, 
did it not ? " inquired Lily. 

" Yes, the old bed of the Busento was dry, 
and that leads me to speak of the strange 
things which were done then. Some of the 
men walked out into the middle of the old bed, 
and dug a great hole, almost big enough for a 
small cellar. When this was finished, a huge 
box was brought there, lowered into the pit, 
and buried up. When the hole was filled the 
canal was also filled up, and the river turned 
back into its place again. Then the men who 
dug the canal and buried the box were all 
killed." 

" Do tell us what was in the box ! " ex- 
claimed the three little girls at once. 

" If we could have lifted the cover," said 
I, " of that mysterious chest, we should have 
been surprised to find the body of a great, 
coarse barbarian, covered with ornaments and 
with jewels, and gems and works of art about 
it. The men might not have been willing to 
tell us where the gems came from, but they 
came from Rome, and the great, coarse barba- 
rian, when he was alive, took them from that 
city. The name of the man who was buried 
was Alaric, a strange name you think, perhaps. 
He and his rough followers were called Goths, 
3 



34 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

and their home was hundreds of miles north 
of Cosenza, away off on the banks of the river 
Danube. They had all been governed by the 
Romans, but you remember that empire lost 
much of its power after the Golden Age. 
Alaric and his people found this out, and in 
the year 405 they came down and attacked the 
city. Finally they conquered it, but on being 
paid a sum of money, they did not destroy it. 
Five years after this, Alaric felt that the Ro- 
mans had deceived him, and he became so 
angry that he entered the city with his sol- 
diers, and they burned and tore down many of 
the fine buildings, and killed a large number 
of the inhabitants. He then marched south- 
ward to Cosenza, which he attacked and cap- 
tured. But there he was suddenly attacked 
himself, by disease, and died. I have told you 
how he was buried." 

" But you have not told us why the people 
who buried him were killed," said Lily. 

" The men who buried him were prisoners 
that he had taken in war," said I, "and they 
were killed in order that they could not tell 
anybody where Alaric and his riches were 
buried." 

" Here are some verses which describe what 
we have just been talking about. I will let 



THE DARK AGES. 35 

Gerty read them. They were written by Ed- 
ward Everett." 

Gerty read as follows : — 

"DIRGE OF ALARIC THE VI SI-GOTH. 

" When I am dead, no pageant train 
Shall waste their sorrows at my bier, 

Nor worthless pomp of homage vain 
Stain it with hypocritic tear ; 

For I will die as I did live. 

Nor take the boon I camtot give. 

" Ye shall not raise a viarble bust, 
Upon the spot where I repose ; 
Ye shall not fawn before my dust, 

In hollow circtcmstance of woes ; 
Nor sculptured clay, with lying breathy 
Insult the clay that moulds bejteath. 

" Ye shall not pile with servile toil 
Your mommients upon my breast y 
Nor yet within the common soil 

Lay down the wreck of power to rest ; 
Where man can boast that he has trod 
On him that was the Scourge of God. 

" But ye the mountain stream shall turn, 

And lay its secret channel bare, 
And hollow for your sovereign's tirn 

A resting-place forever there : 
Then bid its everlasting springs 
Flow back upon the king of kings : 
And never be the secret said, 
Until the deep give up his dead. 



36 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" My gold and silver ye shall fling 

Back to the clods that gave them birth, 
The captured crozvns of many a king, 
The ransom of a conquered earth : 
For e'en though dead, I will control 
The trophies of the Capitol. 

" But when beneath the mountain tide 
Ye''ve laid your monarch down to rot. 
Ye shall not rear zipotz its side 

Pillar or mound to mark the spot ; 
For- long enough the world has shook 
Beneath the terrors of my look ; 
And, notv that I have riin my race, 
The astonished realms shall rest a space.'''' 



" It was, however, not Alaric who called him- 
self the ' Scourge of God,' as we shall soon 
see," said I ; " but let us look at the map of 
Europe again. Can either of you find Austria ? " 
" Here it is, papa," Gerty promptly an- 
swered, " almost in the middle of the map." 

"Do you see a great river, and two towns 
named Buda and Pesth on it } " I continued. 

" I can see them," exclaimed Lily ; " the river 
is the Danube, and the towns are exactly oppo- 
site each other." 

" Buda,"- 1 continued, " is a very ancient city, 
and was for a long time the capital of Hungary. 
It has a population of about forty thousand, and 
is connected with the larger and handsomer 



THE DARK AGES. 37 

city of Pesth by a fine suspension bridge. Buda 
is built on the slopes of a range of hills, and 
is overlooked by a stern old feudal castle. It 
has been besieged more than twenty times by 
hostile armies." 

" What is a feudal castle, papa 1 " inquired 
Lily. 

" Some other day I shall tell you all about 
that word, but let me go on with my story now. 
A little more than four hundred years after 
Christ, there was a great wooden fortress on 
the site of this ancient city, called Etzelburg, 
which meant the castle of Etzel. In it there 
lived a fierce barbarian of small stature, with a 
broad chest, a huge misshapen head, small, 
deep-set, piercing eyes, a flat nose, and a tan- 
colored face. He once lived away ofi* to the 
northeast in China, or some other part of 
Asia, and when he came among the Huns, — 
as the people about Etzelburg were called, ^ — 
he told them that he owned the sword of their 
god of war, which gave him power to subdue 
the whole world." 

"He was a terrible man ! What was his 
name, papa 1 " Gerty asked. 

" He was named Etzel," I said, " but he gave 
himself the title of the Scourge of God. He is 
now called Attila, and he ruled all the barba- 



38 ' SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

rians who lived between the borders of France 
and China." 

" That was a broad country," said Gerty ; 
" he must have had a great many people under 
him." 

" He had, indeed," I continued, " a great 
many subjects, and was able to raise an army 
of over half a million men, so that he came to 
be called also the Terror of the World!' 

" It seems to me I never heard of such ter- 
rible men before. It almost frightens me to 
think of them," Gerty exclaimed. 

" Let me tell you what Attila did. Forty 
years after Alaric had sacked the city of Rome 
this Terror of the World marched against it 
with his immense army. He was met by an- 
other army, and a battle followed, in which one 
hundred and sixty thousand, or, as some state, 
three hundred thousand men were slain ! It 
was one of the greatest battles of all time." 

" Was Attila conquered t " asked Lily. 

" He was not conquered ; but he retired, and 
the next year came down with another great 
army and devastated northern Italy." 

" He did not destroy Rome again, did he "l " 

*'No, he did not. A large sum of money was 
given him, and he went back again : but it was 
considered a miracle that he did not destroy 



THE DARK AGES. 39 

more than he did. In a few years he died, and 
the great and terrible nation of Huns was 
broken up. It had only been held together by 
fear of Atilla." 

" Who was the other man you promised to 
tell us of, papa t " Gerty asked. 

" The third man belonged to another people, 
called Vandals. They first lived on the north- 
ern coasts of Germany, but they moved south- 
east, and settled in Pannonia, as a part of 
Austria was then called. They afterwards went 
west, and established a powerful kingdom in 
Spain. You will see Andalusia on the map of 
Spain, and its name was formed from the word 
Vandal. They built a great fleet and sailed 
over into Africa, where they raised another 
strong nation on the ruins of the Roman do- 
minions at Carthage. Here the Vandals be- 
came the terror of all surrounding nations. 
Their greatest king was Genseric, and he it 
was who directed them, and gained power for 
them. You remember that I told you that the 
Roman general Scipio destroyed Carthage 
two hundred years before Christ." 

" Oh ! I remember that," exclaimed Gerty. 
" And Scipio ploughed up the place and sowed 
salt over it." 

" That was six hundred years before Gen- 



40 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

seric lived. When he was estabHshed at Car- 
thage, he came over to Rome, attacked the city, 
took it, and allowed his soldiers to pillage it 
fourteen days, just as the Romans had done to 
Carthage." 

" Can you now tell me," said I, " the names 
of the three men we have talked about, and 
their nations .'* " 

" Oh ! yes," exclaimed Gerty. " Alaric, the 
Goth ; Attila, the Hun ; and Genseric, the 
Vandal." 

" Right. Can you tell me where they came 
from .? " 

" Let me think," said Lily ; " they all came 
from the north, did they not .-* " 

'' They all came from the north, but exactly 
where they came from we cannot tell. Perhaps 
the Goths once lived in Sweden, or near it. 
The Huns came from northern Asia, or what 
was known as Scythia, an undefined region 
lying between Europe and Asia." 

" I thought there was no territory between 
Europe and Asia," said Gerty. 

" They do join together now," I replied ; " but 
in ancient times their boundaries were indefi- 
nite. But to continue. The Vandals came from 
the northern coasts of Germany, travelled to 
Spain, and afterwards to Africa. These peoples 



THE DARK AGES. 4I 

were alike in one respect. They were all 
barbarians." 

" You have spoken of barbarians before, 
papa," said Lily. " Please tell us exactly what 
a barbarian was." 

" The Greeks and Romans called all whose 
language they did not understand, barbarians. 
The name was formed by imitating the sound 
of confused voices." 

" Bar-bar-bar-bar," exclaimed Gerty deliber- 
ately. " I see how that Was. It does sound 
like confusion." 

" The name was afterwards made to mean 
rude and uncivilized people, because the Greeks 
and Romans considered themselves the only 
polished people. We mean rude and savage 
people, when we say barbarians now." " I un- 
derstand," said Gerty. 

" The Goths, Huns, and Vandals," I said, " by 
turns, ravaged the great Roman empire, as we 
have seen, and almost entirely destroyed its 
civilization. Literature and the refining arts 
languished. The world became involved in 
moral and intellectual darkness, from which it 
took nearly a thousand years to recover. There 
was, in the words of Milton, 

* No light, but rather darkness visible, 

and it is very properly called the Dark Ager 



42 



SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 



" Was it dark all the thousand years ? " in- 
quired Lily. 

" There was very little light and progress," 
I answered, " but I cannot tell you more about 
it now. We have seen how the barbarians put 
out the light of civilization ; at another time we 
can learn more about it." 





CHAPTER V. 




THE DARK AGES. 

THREE KINGS. 

Brief as the lightning in the collied night, 
That, in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth, 
And, ere a man hath power to say, — Behold ! 
The jaws of darkness do devour it up : 
So quick bright things come to confusion. 

Midsummer NigM s Dream. 

AS it dark all through the thousand 
years of the Age we are talking 
about ? " asked Gerty again, as we all 
gathered around the library table, to continue 
our conversation. 

" Do you remember that dark night when we 
came from New York, so late, last autumn ? " 
I replied. 

"Yes," said Gerty. 
" Was it all dark then ? " 
" Yes, it was very dark. The sun went down 
long before we reached home, and it was so 
cloudy that we could not see a single star," 
said she. 



44 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

"But," interrupted Lily, "don't you remem- 
ber when we reached the top of the hill, how 
brightly the lamp shone from our dining-room 
window, long before we reached it. And the 
light away off at Mr. Ingersoll's house on the 
other hill, and the little light that we saw over 
on the other side of the lake, — don't you re- 
member them, Gerty } " 

" Oh, yes ! though it was very, very dark, 
there were some very bright little lights on the 
hills about us," she replied. 

" Just so it was in the Dark Age," I said. 
" There were some bright lights. They did not 
make the Age light, no more than the little 
lights we saw that dark night, made the town 
light. I will now tell you about three of the 
lights of the Dark Age." 

" Do, do ! papa," said Gerty ; " you fright- 
ened us with the horrid, great, rough barbarians, 
and I do wish to hear of something light again." 

"We found France on the map, the other 
day;^did we not ? " 

" Yes, and here it is again, between Spain 
and the German empire," said Lily. 

" If you look over the history of France you 
will find that about three hundred years after 
the times we last spoke of, a man came there 
whose name is celebrated and always will be." 



THE DARK AGES. 45 

" What was his name, papa, and how did he 
look ? " inquired Lily. 

" First I will tell you how he looked. He 
was more than six feet high. His head was 
round, his eyes large and animated, his nose 
was quite prominent, and his countenance was 
joyous and cheerful. He had beautiful gray 
hair, and a long venerable beard. His dress 
was simple, and habits of exercise tended to 
develop his physical frame." 

"He was a noble man and worthy to be a 
king," said Gerty. 

" He was a king," said I, " and the greatest 
of his time. His name was Charlemagne, and 
lived at Aix-la-Chapelle." 

" His name is harder to pronounce than 
either Alaric or Etzel," said Lily. 

" And," Gerty added, " the name of the place 
is harder still." 

" His name means Charles magnus," I con- 
tinued, " and magnus is a Latin word meaning 
great. Aix-la-Chapelle is also formed from 
Latin words, and means the chapel or church 
of the springs. Aix is pronounced just like 
our word aches. The place received its name 
from the medicinal springs for which it is cele- 
brated." 

" I don't care to hear about the city, papa," 



46 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

interrupted Lily, '' what did this great man with 
the hard name do ? " 

" You are right my child. It is not of so 
much importance where we live, as what we 
are, and what we do." 

" If Charlemagne was a great light in the 
Dark Age," said Gerty, " how did he show 
it?" 

" You would be too much wearied," I replied, 
" if I were to tell you one half what he did to 
prove his greatness. I will answer your ques- 
tion in as few words as possible. Shakespeare 
says there is no darkness but ignorance. Now 
learning will disperse this darkness ; Charle- 
magne thought so, and determined to estab- 
lish schools in his kingdom. He needed a 
teacher himself, and sent to Italy, and invited 
a man named Peter to come to Aix-la-Chapelle 
to teach him grammar. He sent to England, 
ai)d urged Alcuin, who was one of the most 
learned men of the time, to come and instruct 
him in the sciences. Besides these, he invited 
other wise men around him and formed a school. 
By these means the spark of learning was kept 
alive, and Charlemagne became more learned 
than any other king. He could read Greek and 
Latin, and could speak and write in the latter 
tongue, which is saying a great deal I do not 



THE DARK AGES. 47 

intend to tell you how great his kingdom was, 
nor what wars he carried on, for if you look into 
any history of France or Germany, you can 
readily learn all you wish to know about those 
things." 

" When did Charlemagne die ? " asked Lily. 

" He was born in 742, and died at Aix-la- 
Chapelle in 814, saying, as he folded his arms 
over his bosom, ' Lord, into thy hands do I com- 
mit.my sotcl r Another saying of his I wish 
to have you remember, as exhibiting his views. 
^ If you would be distinguished', said he, * let it 
be by your merits, not by your garments^ 

"About a dozen years before Charlemagne 
died, there was an English exile in his court, 
whose name was Egbert. He had resided 
there for some years, and had received instruc- 
tion in the wisdom of the school of Alcuin. He 
returned to his native land, became king, used 
his power wisely, and consolidated the small 
governments into one which was called Eng- 
lish. That he was a man of ability we know 
from what he did, but we have another reason 
for thinking so. When he left the court of 
Charlemagne, that monarch made him a pres- 
ent of his own sword, as a token of respect, 
which he would not have done, if he had not 
known Egbert to be a worthy man." 



48 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" Why do you mention king Egbert ? " in- 
quired Lily. 

" Merely," said I, " because he was one of the 
smaller lights of the Dark Age, and because I 
wish you to remember him as the first king of 
England." 

" Who was the third light that illuminated 
this Age } " said Gerty. 

" It is said, that if we had looked into a small 
hut in the southwestern part of England, about 
a hundred years after the birth of Charlemagne, 
we might have seen him sitting before a fire on 
the hearth." 

" What kind of a man was he t " asked little 
Pearl. 

" I cannot tell you exactly how he looked, but 
I know, that if the story is true, he was not 
very well dressed. There were some cakes on 
the hearth, and as there was no one else in the 
hut, it appeared as though the man was cooking 
them. Still he gazed into the fire, and though 
the cakes began to smoke and sizzle and burn, 
he did not offer to touch them." 

" What a careless man ! " exclaimed Gerty. 

" His face was careworn," said I, not noticing 
the interruption, " and he looked tired. When 
the woman who lived in the hut came in and 
chided him for allowing the cakes to burn, he 



THE DARK AGES. 49 

said he had been thinking about something 
else." 

" Do you know what he was thinking of ? " 
asked Lily. 

" He was' troubled about the condition of 
England, and was probably thinking how he 
could improve it. His name was Alfred." 

"That is the first sensible name you have 
mentioned since we began to talk about the 
Ages, papa," said Gerty. 

" You like it, my dear, because it is English, 
and you have heard it before. Alfred was 
called the Great, and is said to have been the 
best and greatest king England has ever had. 
He loved his people, and made good laws for 
them. He taught them to work in the useful 
arts, and what is better, he set them a good ex- 
ample, working hard himself. It is now a thou- 
sand years since he was born, but though he 
lived so long ago, the people of England still 
love his memory. He died in 901, and left 
on record these words, * / have striven to live 
worthily ' — which was true." 

" I love to hear about such men ! " said Lily. 

" I have now," said I, " answered your ques- 
tion whether it was all dark at this time. We 
see that there were some lights in the Dark 
Age. They appear very great when we get 
4 



50 



SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 



close to them, but there was so much ignorance, 
that the influence of the best of them was not 
so great as it ought to have been. They worked 
well, and were like light-houses, for they dis- 
persed the darkness just about them, and illu- 
mined the long night somewhat, cheering men's 
hearts until the sun rose, and daylight rendered 
them unnecessary. When they died they left, 
like Washington, 

'Their memory, 
A light for after times ! ' " 





CHAPTER VI. 



THE DARK AGES. 



TWO MORE KINGS. 




One may smile, and smile, and be a villain ; 

At least, I am sure it may be so in Denmark. — Hamlet. 

Here was a gentleman of Normandy — Hamlet 

H, we had the nicest journey ! The cars 
went so fast, and the day was so pleas- 
ant ! And now we are having a de- 
lightful time with our aunts and cousins." 

So Gerty writes me from the city, whither 
she and Lily went one fine spring morning, 
not long ago. I thought surely the city sights 
and spring fashions would crowd the Ages out 
of her mind ; but no, she writes me an ac- 
count of " a good long talk with Aunt Rhoda, 
about the Dark Age." 

" We thought it would be so pleasant here," 
she writes, " that we could go out to walk, and 
see the beautiful shops, or to drive in the park, 
and see the fine horses and carriages, every 
day, but it has not proved so. When Lily and 



52 S£ VEN HISTORIC A GES. 

I awoke on Tuesday morning it was quite 
dark. We pushed away the curtains and drew 
up the shade, but even that did not help us 
much. Big rain-drops pattered fast against the 
window-panes, and threatening black clouds 
rolled over our heads. We had to light the 
gas to dress, and even in the dining-room, we 
found it burning when we went down-stairs. 
After breakfast, Aunt Rhoda said she could 
not go out, even to school. 

" ' Come up into the nursery, and tell us a 
story then,' said Lily. 

" ' Yes,' said I, ' our papa tells us stories that 
are true, do you know any true stories. Auntie } ' 

" Then Auntie wanted to know what kind of 
stories you tell us, and after I had explained 
all about the Seven Ages, she promised to tell 
us a story or two about the same times. 

" The nursery here is a large room with two 
great book-cases in it, besides the furniture 
usually found in nurseries, and fine large pho- 
tographs of scenes in Europe are hung on the 
walls. One of these is a view of the Pantheon, 
and when I saw it, I remembered what you 
told us about its great dome with the hole in 
the top. Now I am sure that there is such a 
building, and I know just how it looks. I wish 
you would get us photographs of the buildings 
and men you tell us of ! 



THE DARK AGES. 53 

"We sat around one of the book-cases, and 
Auntie said, * has your papa told you of Canute 
of England ? ' 

" ' No,' said I, ' he has not.' 

" * Well, then,' said she, ' I will tell you 
about him to-day. He was not an English- 
man. We will look on the map and find the 
place he came from. It is a little country 
jutting out toward Norway, from Prussia, and 
almost surrounded by water.' 

" Lily was quick, and asked whether it was 
Denmark. 

" '■ Yes,' said Auntie, ' it is Denmark, the 
country of the Danes. Several of the kings 
of England came from that little peninsula.* 

"*How did it happen,' I asked, 'that the 
Danes ruled England 1 ' 

" ' They never could have conquered the 
English,' said Auntie, ' if it had not been for 
the dissensions among the inhabitants them- 
selves. They had been trying to accomplish 
this for two hundred years, and as you become 
better acquainted with the history of the earlier 
British kings, you will learn they all had a good 
deal of trouble with the Danes. In the year 
1002 the king who reigned in England thought 
that the shortest way to be rid of this people 
was to kill all who were in his dominions. He 



54 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

therefore gave his subjects orders to put every 
Dane to death on the thirteenth day of Novem- 
ber of that year, which day was the feast of 
St. Brice.' 

" ' Did the people do this terrible deed, 
Auntie ? ' I asked. 

" ' Yes, my dear. The massacre began in 
a little town twenty-four miles from London, 
called Welwynne. You may remember it bet- 
ter when I tell you that it was the village in 
which the poet Dr. Young lived, many years 
later, and where he wrote his " Night Thoughts." 
It was one of the most bloody massacres the 
world ever saw.' 

" ' Was there ever such another massacre } * 
inquired Lily. 

" ' Yes,' said Auntie, ' there have been two 
in later times, which are celebrated. One is 
known as the " Sicilian Vespers," and occurred 
on the thirtieth of March, 1282, when about 
eight thousand French were slaughtered in 
Palermo on the island of Sicily. The other 
was in France in 1 5 y2, when from seventy to 
one hundred thousand people were slaughtered 
on " St. Bartholomew's Day " only because they 
were Protestants. But we must not forget our 
subject. The massacre of St. Brice enraged 
the Danes very much, and they determined to 



THE DARK AGES. 55 

conquer the English. To do this they sent 
an army into the country, and, so difficult was 
the undertaking, it was not until after ten 
years of hard fighting that the king of Den- 
mark made himself also king of the English. 
The second of the Danish kings is the one of 
which I wished to tell you something. His 
name was Canute, and when he came to the 
throne he overturned most of the institutions 
of the country, but being desirous of popular- 
ity, he erected churches for the conquered in- 
habitants, elevated the clergy to a higher con- 
dition in the realm, made a new and good code 
of laws, and in other ways proved himself a 
wise prince. He conquered Norway, and laid 
claim also to the crown of Sweden. 

" ' You spoke of Alfred the Great. Canute 
was like him in that he made merciful laws. 
He said that punishment should be merciful 
before God, and tolerable in the sight of man. 
He would not permit any to be put to death 
for slight causes.' 

" * Canute was more merciful than I should 
have expected a Dane could be, after what 
happened on St. Brice's Day,' said I. 

" ' He had dedicated his life to God, he said, 
and perhaps that accounts for his mercy. He 
said also, " let him who giveth judgment con- 



5 6 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

sider what he himself desireth when he pray- 
eth thus : Forgive us our trespasses as we for- 
give them that trespass against usT It would 
be well if we all could remember this.' 

" ' I will/ said I. 

"'So will i; added Lily, 

" This was all Auntie told us that day, but 
we have had another conversation about an- 
other king of England who was not English. 

'* ' His name was William/ said she, ' and he 
came from Normandy, as a part of France was 
then called. He made a claim to the throne 
of England which had very little foundation in 
right, but by pretending that his war for the 
crown was a holy one, he prevailed upon thou- 
sands of adventurers to put themselves under 
his leadership. So many valiant military vaga- 
bonds joined his army, that in the year 1066 
he was able to sail from France with a large 
fleet of vessels and to land sixty thousand men 
on English soil.' 

" ' What part of France did he sail from } ' 
I asked. 

" ' From the mouth of the river Somme, 
which, you see, empties into the English Chan- 
nel. The army landed in the county of Sussex, 
near the town of Hastings. The day that Wil- 
liam landed. King Harold fought a great battle 



THE DARK AGES. 57 

with an invading army from Norway, and when 
the news of the trouble at Hastings reached 
him, he was sitting at a banquet in the old city 
of York, far away in the northeast of the island. 
Without losing any time he marched directly 
to London and gathered a large army to re- 
pel the new invaders. While Harold was thus 
marching down upon them, the Normans were 
feasting on the English farmers' harvests and 
cattle, and had also entrenched themselves 
on an elevated position about nine miles from 
Hastings.' 

" * What was the name of the place. Auntie ? ' 

" * It was then called Senlac, but William 
changed it to Battle.' 

" * Please go on. Auntie ! ' said Lily. 

" ' The English under Harold pitched their 
camp directly opposite that of the Normans, 
and on the thirteenth of October, as night 
closed in, each army could plainly see the 
watch-fires of the other. The English were 
confident they could drive away the Normans 
as they had just done the Norwegians, and 
spent the night in revelry. The Normans 
silently engaged in devout prayer for success. 
In the morning William advanced with his in- 
vading army, across a narrow valley, having a 
little consecrated banner carried before him. 



58 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

The English placed themselves in a solid body, 
with the men of Kent in front, and received 
the Norman bowmen and horsemen with their 
murderous battle-axes. Thus the two armies 
contended for six hours, when the invaders pre- 
tended to fall back. The Englishmen thought 
the hour of triumph had come. They broke 
their solid ranks, left their fine position, and 
followed their enemy down to the plain. Then 
the Normans wheeled about, and after hard 
fighting, came off victorious, though fifteen 
thousand of them were left on the field. Great 
numbers of the English were also slain, and 
among them was Harold.' 

" ' Was William the king of England, then } * 
I asked. 

*' * Before assuming the title, he was wise 
enough to ask the consent of the people. The 
clergy and nobility sanctioned his claims, and 
•he was crowned as William the First.' 

" * Did he make a good king 1 ' Lily wished 
to know. 

" ^ That is a difficult question to answer. 
He is generally described as a merciless tyrant, 
but before he died he repented so far as to 
forbid that any man should be punished with 
death.' 

" * Not even for murder ? ' I inquired. 



THE DARK AGES. 



59 



" * I suppose not. But he was wrong if he 
did not put murderers to death, for the Bible 
commands that/ 

" ^ Did all of William's French followers re- 
main in England ? ' 

" ' I suppose most of them did. A great 
many others also came over. The customs of 
France were introduced as well as a great 
many of the French words. Did you ever 
hear of the " Curfew Bell 1 " ' 

" ' Oh yes ! papa says he heard it in Eng- 
land. It rings every evening, and was in- 
tended to warn people to put out their fires 
and lights at a certain hour.' 

" * I am glad to see you remember what your 
father tells you. William brought over this 
custom.' 

" ' Is this the king who is called the " Con- 
queror " .? ' I asked. 

" ' Yes, he is,' Auntie replied. 

" * How long did he reign } ' Lily inquired. 

" ' He reigned twenty-one years in England, 
and died in 1007, aged sixty. He was buried 
in France.' 

" So ended our talk with Auntie." 




CHAPTER VII. 



THE DARK AGES. 



A HERMIT, AND THE CRUSADES. 




Therefore, friends, 
As far as to tne sepulchre of Christ, 
Forthwith a power of English we shall levy, 
To chase these Pagans, in those holy fields, 
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet. 
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nailed 
For our advantage, on the bitter cross. — King H'e7iry IV. 

HE season of sunshine and leaves has 
come, and we at the Mount are enjoy- 
ing the smihng New England land- 
scape, the refreshing shade, and the swelling 
flowers which 

" Blow like sweet roses in this summer air." 

We have our talks under the hickories, where 
we have carried a few chairs and a plain table. 
I said to-day that we had almost finished the 
Dark Age, and Gerty reminded me that I 
promised to explain what I meant once when 
I spoke of 2, feudal castle. 

" Just read," said I, " what the dictionary 
says on the subject." 



THE DARK AGES, 6 1 

So Gerty read, ^^ Feud, a deadly quarrel 
between families r " Look a little further," 
said I. 

She continued, " Feudalism, the Feudal Sys- 
tem. That is, estates in land held of a superior 
on condition of military service!' 

" Pretty hard reading," sighed Lily. 

" Well," said I, " that may help us some, 
but you see we cannot learn what we wish 
from the dictionary alone. Let me see if I 
can make it plain to you. It was the strong- 
hold of Attila which I told you was called a 
feudal castle, was it not ? " 

"Oh, yes, it was called Etzelburg," said 
Lily. 

"Very true," said I, "and Attila was a 
feudal chief You remember how very igno- 
rant the people were then. A vast number of 
these were followers of Attila. He made them 
follow him by promising them gifts of various 
kinds. Other chiefs did the same, and these 
ignorant men owned nothing, but received all 
they had as gifts from their superiors, on con- 
dition that they would serve the chiefs in war. 
The poor men were bound to obey, or lose 
their bread and butter. Thus a multitude of 
nations and sovereigns were formed, and these 
petty rulers constantly disputed. Their dis- 



62 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

putes were only settled by the shedding of 
blood. They were often not settled for a long 
time, but continued from one generation to an- 
other, until the children who fought had no 
reason for doing so, except that their fathers 
had quarreled. These quarrels were called 
feuds, and the system of which they were a 
part was called the Feudal System." 

" I think the ' system ' was very bad. But 
I don't exactly understand what a system is," 
Gerty interposed, apparently a little mystified. 

"A system," said I, "is any set of things 
put together, and the feudal system was that 
set of circumstances, habits, and customs which 
is found connected with the feuds of which 
we have been talking. This system was bad 
in many respects, but it had some good points. 
You may have heard of the institution of chiv- 
alry which was an outgrowth of the feudal at- 
tachment of the warriors to their chieftains." 

" Please explain what chivalry means," Lily 
urged. 

" I cannot do so fully to-day," said I, " but it 
was a romantic system that encouraged valor, 
bravery, devotion to religion, and it exalted and 
protected woman. I shall show you some 
books, when you are a little older, that will 
give you charming pictures of the knights and 
ladies of the age of chivalry." 



THE DARK AGES, 63 

" Do go on ! " exclaimed Gerty, as she no- 
ticed me hesitate and turn over the leaves of 
a black-covered book on the table. 

" Should you like to hear about Peter the 
Hermit, and his pilgrimage ? " I asked. 

" Yes, yes," they all exclaimed, and I be- 
gan : — 

" In the Dark Age there lived in the north 
of France an ignorant and restless man named 
Peter " — 

" Peter who } " interrupted Lily. 

"Peter the Hermit, of course," exclaimed 
Gerty, rather provoked. 

" This man served in the army and became 
an officer. He was married and had a family, 
but his wife died and he became a hermit. 
A hermit is one who goes into a quiet place 
and lives alone in order that he may meditate 
or engage in devotions. It was fashionable in 
those days to take trips to Jerusalem on foot, 
to see the places where our Saviour had been, 
and where He was buried. Peter did not want 
to be out of the fashion, even if he was a her- 
mit, and so he went to the Holy Land. When 
he saw that the city of Jerusalem was in the 
hands of infidels, as the followers of the false 
prophet Mohammed were called, he was quite 
indignant. 



64 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" Who was Mohammed ? " Gerty inquired. 

" You may ask your teacher at school who 
Mohammed was," said I. " To be sure Chris- 
tians would visit the place, but it was only al- 
lowed because the infidels made money out of 
them. Peter was a very excitable man, and 
when he returned home he talked a great deal, 
and pretty loudly too I imagine, about how 
badly the Christians were treated at Jerusalem. 
The ignorant people to whom he talked thought 
the eastern countries were very delightful places, 
almost like paradise, and soon their imagina- 
tions began to picture the charms of life among 
the palms and olives in the most brilliant colors. 
The sun rose in the east, and it was to them a 
place of ease and luxury. 

' The gorgeous East, with richest hand, 
Showers on her Kings barbaric pearl and gold/ 

So they thought, at least, and each was sure 
that a little of the shower would drop on him, 
if he could only get to the enchanted land." 

"The kings are very rich there now, are 
they not 1 " inquired Gerty. 

" We speak even now of ' oriental magnifi- 
cence,' because the people who live toward the 
sun-rising are delighted with display and glitter- 
ing gems. But to go on. From talking, Peter 
went to preaching, and at last he set out to 




MOHAMMED. See page 64. 



THE DARK AGES. 65 

travel over all Central Europe, exciting the 
people to rise up and march against the in- 
fidels." 

" How did Peter look ? " Gerty asked. 

" He was a small man, but with a peculiar 
intelligence and fire in his eyes, and of a pow- 
erfi.1l eloquence. He rode on a mule, and wore 
usually a "brown mantle that fell down to his 
heels and he had his arms and feet bare. He 
ate little or no bread, and lived on fish and 
wine. He was one of the most extraordinary 
men, that Europe ever produced. His voice 
acted like magic. Everywhere the people who 
crowded about him were charmed by his glow- 
ing words, and readily consented to follow him 
to Palestine." 

" Then they really started, did they .'* " said 
Lily, with interest." 

"Yes, they did. Peter was made com- 
mander, and he gave them for a watchword, 
' God wills it ! ' He ordered all his followers to 
wear on their breasts a cross made of red stufi) 
from which they were called crusaders. 

" How is that, papa } " said Gerty thought- 
fully, " ' crusaders because they wore crosses/ 
I don't exactly understand that." 

" Ah ! I forgot to say that these people did 
not speak English. Peter was more familiar 



66 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

with Latin, in which crux means cross, or with 
French, in which croix means cross, and it was 
from these words that the word croisade was 
derived which we have changed to crusade. 
About a milUon people were infatuated enough 
to engage in the crusade under Peter and his 
followers." 

" Did these people expect they should all 
become rich } " inquired Lily. 

" I do not think they did. They had various 
motives for joining the great crowd. I suppose 
some were only romantic, and wanted a new 
excitement ; others were very religious and 
were really horrified to think how the infidels 
desecrated the Holy Land ; many more were 
deluded with the idea that if they died in so 
holy a war they should go directly to heaven ; 
while many may have joined just because it 
was a big crowd. Then, again, anybody who 
was in trouble, or was discontented, might have 
had a prospect held out by Peter, of a pleasant 
change of condition, if he would only put on 
the cross." 

" I can very easily see," said Lily, " that such 
reasons would excite men very much, and, as 
you say, make a great many follow a leader 
who had the advantage of a sort of religious 
character. I have never read of the Crusades, 



THE DARK AGES, 6/ 

and in truth never knew anything about them 
before, and a great question in my mind is, Did 
Peter and his people conquer Palestine ? " 

" Bravo ! " said I. '' I see you are learning. 
Your remark shows more thought than I had 
expected." 

" Oh, papa ! " exclaimed Gerty, with an of- 
fended air, " do answer the question." 

" They made themselves masters of Jerusa- 
lem," I replied, " and of the greater part of the 
country, but it was not by Peter's management. 
There was another leader, Godfrey, who came 
from France, who deserves more credit than 
Peter." 

" Were they ever able to conquer the whole 
country } " Gerty inquired, for she was very 
much interested now. 

" Unsuccessful as the first was, none of the 
other Crusades accomplished so much. Eu- 
rope was excited five times more, and thou- 
sands upon thousands perished in the wars and 
pilgrimages, but all the efforts failed." 

" How dreadful to think of such things ! " 
Lily interposed. 

" And dreadful as they really were, the Cru- 
sades were of great benefit to all Europe. 
Men's ideas were enlarged, and trade was 
vastly increased by the constant travelling of 
so many thousands of people. Those, too, who 



68 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

returned home were more enlightened, polished, 
and better informed. Thus for one hundred 
and ninety-six years Europe was undergoing 
the process of civilization and education." 

" Did you say there were only six Crusades, 
papa } " 

" There were two or three other minor ex- 
peditions," I answered, " which are sometimes 
called by the name, and among them was the 
' Children's Crusade.' It is said that in the year 
121 1 ninety thousand children set out for Pal- 
estine under command of a child. They ought 
to have remained at home and studied geogra- 
phy, for they knew nothing about the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, and so expected to go all the way 
by land. They marched from various parts of 
Germany right down to Genoa, and were very 
much surprised to come to water. Not know- 
ing what to do they scattered, and some were 
murdered, others starved to death, while a great 
number were sold for slaves." 

" Oh, dear ! I'm so sorry for the little chil- 
dren ! " exclaimed Pearl, in mournful tones. 
" What did their mothers say t " 

" I do not know. Do you think you can re- 
member all I have told you in this long talk .'* " 

" You are not done, are you } " asked Gerty, 
apparently surprised. 

" Is not this enough for to-day } " I asked. 




CHAPTER VIII. 



THE DARK AGES. 




JUST BEFORE DAWN. 

Look, the mom, in russet mantle clad, 

Walks o'er the dew of yon liigh eastern hill. — Hamlet. 

HE warm July sun had risen bright, 
and now shone out of a cloudless sky 
over the hills and valleys of Berkshire. 
As it descended toward the west, the little girls, 
tired of play, called at the library door to have 
another historical talk. I found that Gerty had 
been reading in some book about the close of 
the Dark Age. She said she supposed the next 
would be called. the Light Age, as she had read 
about a man called the Morning-star of the 
Reformation. 

" Ah ! " said I, " you are in advance of me, 
for it is of Wiclif that you have read, and he is 
the man I had intended to speak of to-day." 

" No matter, papa," said Lily, " / have not 
read anything, and I am sure Gerty cannot un- 
derstand what she reads half so well as what 
you tell us." 



70 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" Of course I can't ! " Gerty exclaimed, " and 
we both wish you would tell us just what you 
intended to." 

" Listen then," said I. 

" About a hundred years after the Crusades, 
there reigned in England a very powerful king 
who kept the nation at war with one people or 
another, for no other reason than that he was 
ambitious and loved to fight. His name was 
Edward, and among his expeditions were sev- 
eral against France, which is not very far from 
England." 

" I know," said Lily, " that there is only a 
narrow channel between France and England." 

" Of all the great battles king Edward fought, 
I shall only tell you about one. It was Satur- 
day the twenty-sixth day of this month, in the 
year 1346" — 

" Just five hundred and twenty-three years 
ago," interrupted Gerty, with an appearance of 
pride at her skill in arithmetic. 

"Yes," I continued, "on that morning Ed- 
ward's army of ten thousand brave English- 
men was quietly lying on the ground near 
Cressy, waiting for an attack from a French 
army of very many more men. The English 
had been for seven weeks in France, marching, 
fighting, drinking, and carousing by turns." 



THE DARK AGES. 



n 



" Where is Cressy ? " Gerty asked. 

" Here it is, Gerty," said Lily, " not very far 
from the place where papa said that William 
the Conqueror set sail for England. It is just 
north of the river Somme." 

" That is * Cr^cy,' " said Gerty still not satis- 
fied. 

"Very true. That is the French way of 
spelling the name. We call it Cressy," I ex- 
plained. " This little English army contained 
a large number of yeomen " — 

" What is a ' yeoman t ' " inquired Gerty. 

" The institutions of chivalry," I continued, 
" were now declining, but they had left their 
mark upon society. By degrees there had been 
formed three classes among the people. These 
were warriors, teachers, and producers. The 
first and second classes held the titles and priv- 
ileges. The third was composed of those who 
worked at various trades, and comprised the 
farmers, who are very important producers. 
Many of the farmers did not own the land on 
which they worked. Those who owned small 
pieces of land were called yeomen. The 
knights pretended to be the only soldiers, but 
on the field of Cressy, victory was won by the 
spirit and bravery of the yeomen, and the 
power and prestige of the mailed knights be- 



J 2 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

gan to wane. It was not long after this that 
the yeomen began to ask the question, 

When Adam delved and Eve span, 
Where was then the gentleman ? ' 

They thought that God never created any 
with greater rights than others ; and very great 
events were the consequence of their think- 
ing." 

" How about the battle of Cressy, papa ? " 
asked Lily. 

" The Englishmen were quiet, as I said, and 
the French advanced, crying, ' Let us slay 
them all ! ' But all of a sudden the sky became 
dark. There was a partial eclipse of the sun, 
and afterwards a storm of rain accompanied 
with loud peals of thunder. When this ceased 
the autumnal sun shone out bright, and showed 
that the armies were close together. The 
splendid rays of the sun shone directly in the 
eyes of the Frenchmen, and confused them. 
The English yeomen stirred not until the right 
moment, and then each strong arm drew the 
bow-string and the arrows of death flew with 
terrible accuracy toward the enemy's ranks. 
Like a great hedge the archers of England 
held their position, and their steady courage, 
arising from their spirit of independence, gained 
the day. For the first time the strong arm 



THE DARK AGES, 73 

of the British yeoman and the firm spirit of 
British freedom were asserted on a grand 
scale." 

"Please go on!" exclaimed the girls, as I- 
hesitated. 

" Edward had a son who was with him in 
this great battle," I continued. " His name 
was Edward, too, but he is usually called the 
Black Prince, on account of the color of his 
armor. He was pretty young for war, but his 
father gave him a prominent position, and he 
did well." 

" How old was the Black Prince } " Gerty 
asked. 

" At the time of the battle of Cressy he was 
only sixteen years old. Ten years later he 
fought another battle with the French, at 
Poitiers, a town which you will find over two 
hundred miles south of Cressy. On this oc- 
casion the French had a much larger army 
than the English, but the pluck and spirit of 
the little army, and the good management of 
the Black Prince, won the victory again." 

*'That is wonderful!" Gerty exclaimed, ''I 
should not expect a small army to conquer a 
large one." 

" No great commander ever had more won- 
derful and unexpected success," said I, " but this 



74 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

was not more surprising than the kind and 
chivalric way in which Prince Edward behaved 
to the French king whom he had defeated. 
Instead of exulting over him, he came out and 
met King John with all the marks of regard and 
sympathy. He tried to comfort him and make 
him his friend, telling the captive that his valor 
was worthy of high praise, and that the victory 
was due to the chances of war or to that su- 
perior providence which controls all the efforts 
of the human heart and prudence." 

Lily wished to know how the French king 
felt and acted. 

" The captive," I continued, " was very sad, 
but Edward's polite words and acts made his 
pain less." 

" Papa," said Lily, " you told us that the 
Dark Age was now about at an end. Did 
these wars of Edward and the Black Prince 
have anything to do with the close ? " 

" I do not mean," said I, " that the Dark Age 
closed at any particular time. Intelligence had 
been constantly spreading during a long period, 
and we are told that the high-roads of Europe 
were crowded with young persons going to the 
great schools which had been established in 
many of the great cities. The Crusades had 
created a religious enthusiasm, and the brilliant 




JOHN WICLIF. See page 75, 



THE DARK AGES. 



75 



wars of Edward the Third, and the Black Prince, 
aroused a spirit of patriotism and national pride 
in the English yeomen. The yeomanry of Eng- 
land now began to claim rights and privileges, 
which their children have constantly enlarged." 

" Now," Gerty said, " I suppose that as we 
are so near the dawn of a brighter era, you can 
tell us about the Morning Star, for it rises be- 
fore- day, auntie told me." 

" We have had so long a talk already," I said, 
" that I shall only say a few words about Wiclif. 
An old writer said of him that he * stepped forth 
like a valiant champion, even as the morning 
star being in the midst of a cloud, so doth he 
shine and glisten in the temple of God.' He 
was an unfailing foe to popish tyranny, and it 
is in this respect that he is generally called the 
Morning Star." 

" He was a clergyman, I believe," added 
Gerty. 

" Yes, and like most clergymen of his day, 
he was not only a great writer but a great 
student. He translated the whole Bible into 
English for the first time, which is a great 
deed. He is looked upon by many as the first 
of the reformers of whom Martin Luther, who 
lived nearly two hundred years afterwards, was 
the greatest." 



76 SE VEN HISTORIC A GES. 

" In what year did Wiclif live ? " asked Lily. 

"He was born about 1324," I answered, "and 
died in 1384. During his life bad men treated 
him badly, and after his death their hate led 
them to dig up his bones and burn them." 

" Oh, how horrible ! " exclaimed the girls. 

" It was horrible, indeed. His ashes were 
thrown into a small stream that flows by his 
old home at Lutterworth, and from that little 
stream an old writer says they were carried 
to the river Avon, then into the Severn, and 
finally into the ocean. Wiclif s teachings were 
good, and spread far and wide, until like his 
dust they are now scattered over all parts of 
the world. The following lines will help you 
remember this : — 

" ' The Avon to the Severn runs. 
The Severn to the sea ; 
And Wiclif s dust shall spread abroad, 
Wide as the waters be.' " 





CHAPTER IX. 

AGE OF LEO X. 

A CHURCH AND A REFORMATION. 

Though you, and all the kings of Christendom, 

Are led so grossly by this meddling priest, 

Dreading the curse that money may buy out ; 

And, by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust, 

Purchase corrupted pardon of a man, 

Who, in that sale, sells pardon from himself ; 

Though you and all the rest so grossly led, 

This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish ; 

Yet, I alone, alone do me oppose 

Against the Pope, and count his friends my foes. 



King yohn. 




WAS musing alone under the hick- 
ories. A rustle in the bushes behind 
me, and I heard 

" Brown eyes. 

Straight nose ; 
Diit pies, 
Rumpled clothes ! " 

Little Pearl danced out from her hiding- 
place with a hug and a kiss for papa, and 
another voice gayly sounded in the same direc- 
tion. It said, — 



78 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" If the butterfly courted the bee, 

And the owl the porcupine ; 
If churches were built on the sea, 

And three times one was nine ; 
If a gentleman, sir, was a lady — 

The world would be upside down." 

And that was all I heard, for it was Lily, 
and just as she had said " upside down," her 
sister Gerty appeared, saying, in a sharp voice 
and with the disdainful air that elder sisters 
can put on, — 

" Hush, children ! Do you think papa wishes 
to hear such nonsense ? I have come out with 
this great atlas to hear some history. Let us 
sit down and behave ourselves." 

" I'm going to the sand-rock to make sand- 
pies," said Pearl. " I don't want to hear sto- 
ries to-day." 

" I will sit with you, sister Gerty," said Lily, 
" if papa will give us an interesting story." 

" I will tell you," said I, " of a great church 
that I saw once, which took a hundred and 
seventy-six years to build, and of some of the 
consequences of its building. Can either of 
you tell me who discovered America, and when 
he did it.?" 

After a little thought Gerty replied, — 

" Christopher Columbus, about 1492." 

" Exactly right," said I ; " can you tell me 
where he was born .? " 



AGE OF LEO X. 79 

" I know," exclaimed Lily, " for you went 
there once, and told us about it. He was born 
in Italy." 

" At the time of his birth," I continued, " a 
remarkable man ruled in Italy. He was of a 
distinguished family called the Medici, though 
he is oftener called Leo, for he was the Pope 
of Rome, and the tenth who had been called 
Leo. For one hundred and fifty or two hun- 
dred years before he became Pope, Leo's fam- 
ily had been growing rich and powerful." 

I noticed Gerty turning over the leaves of 
the atlas, and now she looked up and asked in 
what part of Italy Columbus was born, and 
whether it was near Rome. We looked over 
the map together. 

" Here is the city of Genoa, on the gulf of 
the same name," said I, " and it was there that 
the discoverer of America was born. A little 
farther south you see Livorno, which we call 
Leghorn, and back in the country is Pisa, 
where the leaning tower is. Still farther down 
is Civita Vecchia, and east of it is Rome. You 
see we have gone a good many miles from 
Genoa. There is another city for us to find. 
Do you see a little river that runs into the sea 
just north of Leghorn } " 

" Yes, it is the Arno," answered Gerty. 



80 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES, 

" If you follow that river up," said I, " you 
come to Pisa, of which we just spoke, and then 
to Firenze, which we call Florence." 

" I see that, too," Lily said. 

" We must find one more place," I contin- 
ued. " Where is Constantinople } " 

After a short look Gerty told us that Con- 
stantinople is on the Sea of Marmora, and is 
the capital of the Turkish empire. 

I explained that many years ago the city was 
Greek, and was the home of many learned men 
of that nation, and that afterwards it fell into 
the hands of the Romans. 

" About fifty years before Columbus dis- 
covered America," so I went on, '' the heathen 
Turks drove out many learned men from Con- 
stantinople, and compelled them to look for a 
home somewhere else. The Medici family en- 
couraged them to go and live in Florence, 
which the learned men were very glad to do, 
and that city thus got a great name." 

" Did these men go to live in any other cities 
in Italy } " asked Gerty. 

" Yes," I replied, '' they went to Pisa and 
other cities, and established schools that be- 
came very much celebrated. But none of the 
schools are so well known as was one of the 
professors at Pisa. His name was Galileo. He 



AGE OF LEO X, 8l 

invented the pendulum which you may hear 
ticking in the old clock in the corner of the 
library. You see there a long rod with a weight 
at the end, and it swings and swings all the 
time. In the cathedral at Pisa, Galileo saw 
a long iron rod hanging from the high ceiling, 
with a chandelier on the lower end." 

" You saw it too, did you not .'' " Lily inter- 
posed. 

" Yes, I did. Well, this rod and chandelier 
swung too, a little, so it is said, and suggested 
the pendulum to Galileo." 

*' Do let papa go on, Lily ! I wish to hear 
about the great church that took so long to 
build," Gerty exclaimed, a little pettishly. 

" I was about to say," I continued, " that the 
Medici family not only encouraged learned men 
to make Italy their home, but they employed 
artists, sculptors, and architects, to erect fine 
buildings and to ornament them with statues 
and paintings." 

"That was just what Augustus did in the 
Golden Age of Rome," exclaimed Lily. 

" And what Pericles did at Athens in t^e 
Golden Age of Greece," said Gerty. 

" About the time that the learned men were 
driven by the Turks from Constantinople," I 
went on to say, " which was some fifty years 
6 



82 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

before Columbus discovered America, one of 
the Popes designed the great church we are 
speaking of, which was to be erected in Rome, 
and to be dedicated to St. Peter. After John 
de' Medici, for that was his name, became Leo 
X., he enlarged the first plan, for you know the 
Medicis liked to make their buildings very 
grand. He employed Raphael the greatest 
artist of the time, to work on it, but neither 
Leo, nor Raphael, nor Michael Angelo, another 
great artist who devised the immense dome af- 
terwards, lived to see the cljurch completed." 

" How many years did you say it took to 
complete it," asked Lily. 

" Let us see how we can remember how long 
the church was building. You said Columbus 
discovered America in 1492. Do either of you 
know in what year the Pilgrims landed at Ply- 
mouth .? " 

"I do," said Gerty ; "in 1620." 

" How many years were there between these 
events .-* " I asked. 

" One hundred and twenty-eight years," said 
Lily, who knew more of arithmetic than of 
history. 

" If you can remember these two dates," said 
I, " you can easily remember, also, when St. 
Peter's Church was built, how many years it 



AGE OF LEO X. 83 

took to do it, and some other things of which 
we shall soon speak." 

" But you said St. Peter's Church was begun 
nearly fifty years before America was discov- 
ered, did you not } " Gerty inquired. 

*' I did say so," I answered, " and the church 
was not completed until six years after the 
Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth." 

" I think I can remember that," said Lily. 

" You know that I promised to tell you some- 
thing of the consequences of building this ex- 
travagant church, and we must devote a few 
minutes to that," said I. " The Pope of Rome 
has nowadays pretty hard work to get enough 
money to pay his expenses, and, in fact, runs 
in debt every year." 

" I thought he was just as rich as he could 
be," exclaimed Lily. 

"He makes a great show," I replied, " but it 
is so costly to live as he does, that he has to 
borrow a great deal of money, besides taking a 
great many presents which the Romanists 
send him from all over the world. In the days 
of Leo X. it was somewhat different, but when 
he wished to build this great church, and to 
ornament it so extravagantly, he found he had 
not money enough. He therefore offered to 
sell indtdgenceSy to raise money." 



84 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" What are ' indulgences ? ' " asked Gerty. 

" They are papers sold by the Pope, with his . 
great seal on them, by which he pretends to 
take away the penalty due to men for sins," 
said I. 

" Does not the Bible teach that no one but 
God can pardon sin ? " Gerty continued. 

" We cannot stop now to discuss that ques- 
tion," I said. " However we should decide it, 
makes no difference with our story. Leo sent 
out agents to offer indulgences to the people. 
One of these named Tetzel, went to Germany 
and promised, to those who would pay for it, 
absolution from all excesses, sins, and crimes, 
however enormous they might be, and told the 
people that when any one cast money into his 
box for the soul of a dead person, it would fly 
up to heaven so soon as the coin tinkled in the 
bottom. By such means he created a great 
excitement, and obtained large amounts of 
money. But while the people bought the in- 
dulgences in so great numbers, there were some 
who looked into the Bible, as Gerty suggested, 
to see what was said on the subject there." 

" Who were these .? Do tell us, papa ! " said 
Gerty. 

" One of them was a poor monk, named Mar- 
tin Luther, a brave man. He opposed Tetzel's 



AGE OF LEO X. 85 

trade, and though he was in great danger he 
was * armed so strong in honesty/ as Shakes- 
peare says of another, that he cared not for 
threats and risks. Luther's preaching was so 
forcible that the people began to refuse to 
buy indulgences to sin, and the trade finally 
stopped." 

" Did the sale of indulgences and the excite- 
ment both stop together t " asked Gerty. 

"It was the year 15 16," said I, "when Tetzel 
began to preach. Luther began to oppose him 
the next year. In 15 18 Tetzel's influence was 
gone, and in 15 19 he died. The excitement 
did not die, however, but became much greater. 
We know that the Dark Age had now passed, 
that the printing-press had been invented, and 
that learned men were spreading their thoughts 
over Europe by means of books, and intelligence 
was increasing. These facts made the people 
more anxious to hear what Luther had to say, 
and better able, also, to judge of the truth of 
his words. Luther was a member of the 
Romish Church, and continued to be such, 
though he opposed what he thought was wrong 
in its teachings. But at last he and those who 
agreed with him, solemnly protested against 
these errors, and in the year 1530 separated 
from the Roman Catholic Church. Ever since 



86 



SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 



that time those who have agreed with Luther 
have been called Protestants!* 

"Then the building of the great Romish 
cathedral led to the Reformation that I have 
heard of ? " said Gerty. 

" Yes," said I, " it did indirectly, though, as 
we have seen, the world had been prepared by 
other events, for advances in freedom of thought, 
as well as for reform in religious matters." 





CHAPTER X. 



THE AGE OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. 




Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, 

When gold and silver becks me to come on ! — King yohn. 

?|EAR papa ! " Gerty exclaimed one day, 
" I was much interested in what you 
told us about Luther and his times in 
Germany, and have been wondering whether 
all people were at that time involved in disputes 
about religion, as he and those about him were." 

" I am glad you have enough curiosity and 
thought to ask this question. It is a very nat- 
ural one, and I shall try to-day to show you 
that in Germany and elsewhere some other 
matters engaged a great deal of attention. 
Have you forgotten when Columbus discov- 
ered America .'* " 

" We have not forgotten that, and never 
shall," both Gerty and Lily answered, " because 
America is our home, and we love it. It was 
discovered in the year 1492." 

" Just at that time," I went on, " there was a 



88 ' SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

sickly little boy playing about one of the small 
towns in the old province of Estremandura, in 
the western part of Spain. His parents were 
of a high family but poor, and the little fellow 
was often quite ill, and on several occasions 
came very near losing his life by disease. His 
parents, poor as they were, sent him to school, 
and, when he was fourteen years old, to college ; 
but he did not like study, and after spending 
two years at college, he ran away and went 
home. This was nine years after the discovery 
of this continent, and as he was no better con- 
tented at home, little Hernando, for that was 
his name, made up his mind to go to the new 
world to seek his fortune." 

" What did his father and mother say to 
that } " asked Lily. 

" I do not know what they said, but I can 
tell you what they did. They probably thought 
they could not manage Hernando at home, or, 
perhaps, they concluded the sea air and the new 
climate would do his health good, or for some 
other reason, they not only allowed him to go, 
but gave him their blessing, and some money 
when he started." 

" I don't believe Lily knows where Spain is," 
said Gerty, as she spread the map of the world 
before her younger sisters. 



THE AGE OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. 89 

" Yes, I do," Lily rejoined. " We looked it 
out when we were talking about the Vandals. 
Here is the New World, too, on the Western 
Hemisphere, and here is Germany, northeast 
of Spain. We have talked of all these countries 
before." 

'' Look at the Western Hemisphere and see 
whether you can find Mexico," said I. 

Quick as thought Lily replied, " Here it is, 
between the Gulfs of Mexico and California." 

"And here, in the middle of Mexico, is a 
city of the same name," added Gerty. 

" Very good ! " said I. " Young Hernando 
sailed first for the West India islands, where 
he not only worked to get gold, which he loved 
very much, but also distinguished himself in 
the conquest by the Spanish army of one of 
the islands, which you see is called Cuba. This 
army was commanded by a general named Ve- 
lasquez, who had come out with Columbus on 
his second voyage." 

" You have only told us Hernando's first 
name," Lily suggested. 

" His family name was Cortez," said I, " and, 
as he is known by that name in history, we had 
better call him by it in our talk. He was a 
graceful young man when he left home, and was 
now able to perform the exercises of a soldier 



90 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

wonderfully well. He had also grown mature, 
and was cool and experienced. His character 
and accomplishments led to his appointment 
as commander of an expedition to Mexico, for 
the Spaniards always coveted gold, and having 
heard of the riches of that country, determined 
to conquer it. After making preparation Cor- 
tez sailed and landed on the coast of Mexico 
in the year 15 19. The natives were surprised 
at his horses, and frightened by his cannon. 
Cortez found that the king's name was Mon- 
tezuma. 

" * Has your king silver and gold } ' asked 
Cortez. 

'* ' He has,' the people replied. 

" * Then let him send it me,' said the Span- 
iard, * for I and my companions have a disease 
of the heart that is cured by gold.' " 

" He forgot the Bible when he said that," 
Gerty exclaimed. " Do you remember the 
verse auntie taught me .-* — ' He that loveth sil- 
ver shall not be satisfied with silver ; nor he 
that loveth abundance with increase! " 

" Yes, he forgot that," said I, " but he 
learned afterwards that it is true. Cortez 
marched up to the city of Mexico, which Lily 
just now pointed out, and Montezuma received 
him with great pomp, giving him a beautiful 



THE AGE OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. 9 1 

palace to live in. I wish I could stop and tell 
you all about this splendid city, but we have 
not time. Cortez said it was the most beauti- 
ful thing in the world, and he envied Monte- 
zuma for owning it. Notwithstanding the 
kindness with which he was treated, Cortez 
suddenly made the Mexican king a prisoner 
in his own magnificent palace, and threatened 
to kill him, if he called for help." 

'' What a wicked man Cortez was ! " ex- 
claimed Gerty, indignantly. 

" He placed Montezuma in irons," I contin- 
ued, " and finally forced an immense amount 
of gold from him, and caused him to swear to 
be a subject of the king of Spain, Charles the 
Fifth. But he had much trouble before he 
conquered the Mexicans, and in the course of 
the wars Montezuma and Guatimozin, who was 
king after him, both lost their lives." 

" It shocks me," said Lily, " to know that 
all the great soldiers we hear of were so very 
cruel." 

" Too often they are cruel," said I, " and es- 
pecially when fighting to get gold, for then 
they appear to think nothing too bad for them 
to do. Like Faulconbridge in Shakespeare's 
play they are ready to be cursed by the priest's 
terrible ' bell, book, and candle ' curse, or to 



92 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

suffer any distress to gain their ends. Cortez 
was no exception. He gained much gold for 
himself and his king at the expense of cruelty 
and murder ; but he was treated cruelly him- 
self and never was rewarded as he expected to 
have been. But I cannot tell you more about 
him now." 

" Please tell us about King Charles, then," 
Gerty urged. 

" When Columbus wished ships to sail west- 
ward he received aid, as you have learned, from 
Ferdinand and Isabella, who reigned in Spain, 
and Charles was a grandson of this Ferdinand. 
He was much younger than Cortez, and was 
only sixteen years old when he became king." 

" That was pretty young," Gerty interposed. 

" But no younger than the Black Prince was 
at the battle of Cressy," added Lily. 

" He was quite young, though," said I, " and 
especially for so great a kingdom as he was 
called to rule. He became king of Spain and 
all its scattered colonies on the death of his 
mother's father, and in two or three years his 
father's father died, and that made him em- 
peror of Germany also. He was not born in 
Spain, but in Belgium, and had been educated 
there, and as his father was not a Spaniard, 
Charles did not possess the sympathy of his 



THE AGE OF CHARLES THE FIFTH, 93 

subjects in Spain. Besides this, he was stern 
and grave, while his subjects were lively, 
spirited, and gay. He was the first king of 
Spain called Charles, and the fifth emperor of 
Germany of the name. He is therefore called 
Charles I. of Spain, and Charles V. of Germany. 
Charles was very ambitious, and boasted of the 
extent of his dominions, saying that the sun 
never set on them, which indeed it never did, 
for he ruled countries on both sides of the globe, 
so that when it was night in one part it was 
bright day in some other part." 

" Do you understand that, Lily ? " asked 
Gerty, with her patronzing air. 

" Of course I do ! " Lily rejoined, a little of- 
fended at the insinuation of her elder sister. 

" One of the first acts of Charles's reign in 
Germany," I continued, '' was the trial of Martin 
Luther for heresy, or for his opposition to the 
Romish Church. This occurred at the city of 
Worms, in 1521, and of it you will read in his- 
tory." 

" What a queer name for a city ! " said Lily. 

" It may sound oddly to you, but it does not 
to the Germans, who do not pronounce it as 
you do. We cannot consider all the events of 
this age to-day, but you may remember that it 
was a very important era in Germany and 



94 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

Spain, as we have already seen it was in Italy, 
and as you will also find it was in England." 

" Who was king of England at the time ? " 
inquired Gerty. 

" Henry the Eighth was king of England," 
I answered, " and Francis the First of France. 
You will remember Henry and Francis from a 
celebrated meeting they had in France, which 
was so magnificent as to be always known as 
the " Field of the Cloth of Gold." Perhaps I 
may tell you about that one day. But let us go 
back to King Charles. Besides working hard 
to make his dominions greater and greater, 
which caused him to engage in bloody wars, he 
also tried to make all his subjects Romanists. 
This was the reason he tried to keep Luther 
from preaching Protestantism, and this, too, 
was one of the aims of Cortez in Mexico. But 
neither of them was immediately successful, 
for though Mexico is now a Roman Catholic 
country, the natives under Montezuma and 
Guatimozin strongly resisted the efforts of 
Cortez to introduce that belief, and Germany 
is now a Protestant country." 

" How long did Charles the Fifth reign } " 
Lily inquired. 

" Your question," said I, " brings us to one 
of the most remarkable acts of this great king. 



THE AGE OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. 95 

Some years before his death he concluded that 
he could not continue to direct and lead in 
matters of state so successfully as he had long 
done, and so, gathering a splendid assembly in 
the city of Brussels, he resigned a portion of 
his power to his son, who became Philip the 
Second of Spain. At another time he gave up 
the empire of Germany to his brother Ferdi- 
nand. When he had transferred all of his 
dominions to other hands, he retired to a 
convent. The place which he selected for his 
home was the convent of St. Yuste, among the 
romantic mountains in the north of Estreman- 
dura, in Spain. There he had prepared a very 
elegant suite of apartments, and they were 
furnished with every luxury that taste and 
art could supply. There, surrounded by the 
peaceful beauties of nature without, and with 
gold and paintings, statuary and books within, 
he spent his last days feasting his body, and 
employing his mind with the movements of 
those public affairs that he had tried in vain to 
control. He died in 1558, an exemplification 
of the lines — 

" * Kings are like stars — they rise aiid set — they have 
The worship of the world, but no repose. ' " 




CHAPTER XI. 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. 



THREE QUEENS. 

In her days every man shall eat in safety 
Under his o\vn vine, what he plants ; and sing 
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbors ; 
God shall be truly known. 



Shakespeare. 




OU told US that the king of England 
who reigned at the time of Charles V. 
was named Henry, and I have been 
wishing to know more about him." So Gerty 
opened our conversation one warm autumn 

day. 

" There would be a great deal to interest us 
in the history of King Henry," I replied, " but 
now that your curiosity is excited, I shall let 
you read about it. Our talk to-day will be 
about three queens, two of whom were his 
daughters. Two of these were named Mary, 
and the other Elizabeth. The first Mary was 
born about the time Charles was crowned king 
of Spain, and became queen of England in 
1553, which was two years before Charles gave 
up the authority to his son." 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND, 97 

*' When was Queen Elizabeth born ? " asked 
Lily. 

" When her sister Mary was crowned, Eliz- 
abeth was twenty years old," I replied, " and 
having been very carefully educated, was a 
young lady of many accomplishments." 

" Was not Mary well educated too t " Gerty 
inquired. 

" Certainly," said I, " Mary was highly edu- 
cated, but she grew up to be a very different 
woman from her sister." 

" Did they not have the same teachers } " 
asked Lily. 

" They did not, and for more than one reason. 
You may be surprised when I tell you that little 
Mary was engaged to be married to one of her 
cousins, almost before her school-days began." 

" How old was she .'* To whom was she 
engaged 1 My school-days have already begun, 
may I be engaged, papa 1 " Gerty exclaimed al- 
most out of breath. 

" Mary was about seven years old," I con- 
tinued without answering Gerty's questions, 
" and the young gentleman was fourteen years 
older than she. You have heard of him. His 
name was Charles " — 

" Oh ! Charles the Fifth ! " exclaimed Gerty. 
" Was Mary engaged to Charles the Fifth ? " 
7 



98 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

*' Right," said I. " Little Mary was engaged 
to be married to Charles V., and to please him, 
she was educated after the Spanish fashion. 
Her father did not like the Pope, nor the 
Romanists, but was willing to do anything to 
please so powerful a ruler as Charles, and for 
this poor reason he made a little Romanist 
of his daughter, whom he said he loved very 
much." • 

*' Did King Henry really love Mary ? " Lily 
asked. 

" I suppose he really did," said I. 

" When was Mary married } " asked all the 
girls at once. 

" Of course you do not suppose she was 
married very soon after her engagement, and 
her long engagement proved not the best 
thing in the world. Before little Mary was 
old enough to be a wife, her lover changed 
his mind, and afterwards married another lady 
named Isabella." 

" Did Mary ever marry any one ? " asked 
Lily. 

" Yes," I replied, " a number of years later 
she married Philip, king of Spain, who was a 
son of her cousin Charles. Philip did not love 
Mary, and lived in Spain the most of his time, 
while she was deeply in love with him, and 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. 99 

allowed his views to exert a great influence 
over her actions." 

" Was this the queen whom I have heard 
called Bloody Mary ? " asked Lily. 

^' The same," I answered, " and well she 
deserves the title. She was a very strong 
Romanist, and thought every one who differed 
from her in religious faith ought to be pun- 
ished. She caused nearly three hundred per- 
sons to be burned to death in three years, 
only because they were Protestants." 

" How terrible ! " exclaimed little Pearl. 
" When I only burned my hand the other 
day, it made me cry for pain, and I think it 
must be dreadful to be burned to death ! " 

" It is dreadful," I said, " to sit here in our 
comfortable library and talk about it, but to 
be tied up to a stake surrounded with faggots, 
and there to be burned by cruel men, must be 
indeed fearful ; and yet Mary was so barbarous 
as to have two babies burned in this way, and 
more than fifty women " — 

" It makes me shudder to think of it," said 
Gerty. "Let us hear now about the other 
queens." 

'• Well," said I, "first there is Elizabeth. She 
is called Good Queen Bess, which shows that 
her reputation is very different from her sister's. 



100 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

This affectionate title is given her because she 
is loved." 

" Please papa, tell us about her life when she 
was young," Gerty urged. 

" Oh do ! " exclaimed Lily. " I love to think 
of the great people as once children, and feel 
better acquainted with them for it." 

"Little Elizabeth was born in her father's 
palace at Greenwich," said I "on the seventh 
of September, 1533, and, a few days after, 
was christened at the same place, the cele- 
brated Archbishop Cranmer being her god- 
father. Shakespeare gives a poetical account of 
this ceremony at the end of the last act of his 
play of Henry VIIL" 

" What was her mother's name ! " Lily asked. 
" Elizabeth's mother was named Anne BuUen .'* " 
I replied, " and she was younger than Catherine, 
the mother of her sister Mary. After a few 
years Anne's husband caused her to be put to 
death, and then he married another woman 
named Jane Seymour." 

" What was poor Queen Anne put to death 
for } " Lily inquired with much interest. 

" The story of Anne Bullen's sad death, and 
the causes of it, form a very interesting chapter 
of history, but we can hardly stop to consider 
it to-day. Her daughter Elizabeth was very 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND, 10 1 

carefully educated, and, like Mary, was much 
courted by persons who wished to marry her. 
However, she never was married. She became 
quite learned, understanding Latin, French, 
Italian, Spanish, and other languages, and be- 
ing able to write pretty good poetry. Her 
most distinguished teacher, Roger Ascham, 
was the first writer on education in our lan- 
guage." 

" Do ladies learn so many things nowadays, 
papa 1 " asked Gerty. 

" Very few do, my dear," I answered, " but 
I think it would be a good plan for some of 
them to study more than they do. Don't 
you .? " 

Both the older girls agreed with me, and I 
continued : " Ehzabeth differed from her sister 
in that she was a Protestant, and when Mary 
died in 1558, the people were almost wild with 
joy, for they hated her, and were glad Eliz- 
abeth was to be queen. They had reason to 
be glad, as we shall see. Among her first 
acts, the new queen, on the first Christmas 
Day, put herself at the head of the Protestant 
world, and sent friendly messages to the Prot- 
estant sovereigns. Not long after she restored 
the Church of England service in the churches, 
gave people the right to use the Bible in their 



102 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

own language, and thus forever constituted 
Protestantism the rehgion of England. Were 
these not acts proper to rejoice over ? " 

"Indeed they were ! " Gerty exclaimed, and 
then suddenly changing the subject, she said, 
" I have found a very old paper which has in 
it a picture of Queen Elizabeth looking at a 
Christmas play. Here it is." 

"A very fine picture," I said, examining it, 
"but not so old as you suppose. I took it 
myself from the ' London, Illustrated News ' for 
Christmas, 1858." 

" That was before I was born, though," said 
Gerty. 

" Let us look at the picture," said I. " Here 
is the proud queen on her canopied throne, 
with her royal arms behind her, and the ele- 
gant train of her robe spreads in graceful folds 
over the steps. See those rings on her fingers, 
and the pearls and precious stones in her hair 
and about her great ruffled collar ! Around 
her, too, are her courtiers. Gentle Will Shakes- 
peare, as he is called, is bowing to the queen, 
for it is his play of ' Love's Labor's Lost,' which 
is in progress. Just in front of the royal party 
is the stage, on which Don Armado and Moth 
are discoursing about love. We can only imag- 
ine who, besides the queen and the poet, con- 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. 103 

'stitute the audience, and perhaps we will do 
as well to go on with our history." 

" Oh ! how I do wish I had lived then ! " ex- 
claimed Lily, *' I should like to have sat at the 
foot of the throne with that little page ! " 

" What else did Queen Elizabeth do ? " asked 
Gerty. 

" The picture you have just showed me," I 
said, " reminds me that her reign, which was 
very long, is remarkable for the great writers 
who lived at the time. 

" First among them was Shakespeare, who 
wrote poems and plays so full of wisdom and 
beauty, that no one has ever equaled him in 
any country. I shall only mention three others, 
Edmund Spenser, who was a graceful poet, 
Lord Bacon, who was a deep philosopher, and 
Walter Raleigh, of whom Sir Walter Scott has 
given an attractive picture in his novel of 
* Kenil worth.* Besides these writers there were 
noble and scientific men who went out in ships 
to discover and conquer new countries. The 
people were active and enterprising, and the 
queen encouraged them so much and so com- 
pletely gained their good-will that for very 
many years the day she became queen was 
called Queen Elizabeth's Day, and was cele- 
brated with enthusiastic love." 



104 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" You have forgotten, papa, that I asked what 
the queen did, not what the people did," sug- 
gested Gerty. 

" What the people do," said I, " is often of 
much greater importance than what the sov- 
ereign does." 

" Then please tell us about the other Mary, 
and you may do it in your own way," said 
Gerty. 

"The year 1542," said I, as the girls ar- 
ranged their seats anew about the table, — "the 
year 1542, was a very exciting one in Scotland. 
At the end of that year, and just one week 
before her father died, a little girl was born, 
who was afterwards known as Queen of Scots, 
and who was destined to have as stormy and 
excited days all through life, as her father had 
seen the few months before she was born. Her 
mother was Mary of Lorraine, a daughter of 
the Duke of Guise, who founded in France a 
celebrated family which became very prominent 
in upholding the Romish religion, and had a 
good deal to do with the Massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, of which we spoke once, you re- 
member." 

Gerty was always glad to have me speak of 
anything of which I had told them before, and 
now she exclaimed : " I remember that ! " 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. 105 

"This little girl was courted by a number 
of persons, and when she was six years old, 
was engaged to be married, to a young prince 
named Francis, whose father was king of 
France." 

" What was his father's name ? " Lily asked. 

" King Henry the Second," I replied. " He 
was very active in persecuting Protestants, and 
had a large number of them burned, just as 
Queen Mary did. Because the little six-year- 
old princess was engaged to a French prince, 
she was sent over to France to be educated, 
with four companions, each of whom was also 
named Mary." 

" That was funny ! " exclaimed Pearl. " Five 
Marys all together ! " 

"If you had gone with the Marys you would 
have found the people about the king were all 
Romanists. Henry's wife was Catherine de 
Medici, of the same family to which Leo X. 
belonged. She became the mother of three 
kings of France, one of whom, Charles the 
Ninth, she incited to give orders for the Mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew. The court of Henry 
II. was devoted to love and literature, and in 
these things little Mary was educated. She 
became a brilliant scholar, and was a beautiful 
and gay young woman." 



I06 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" Was she ever really queen ? " Lily asked. 

" Yes," said I, " she became queen of both 
France and Scotland, but her husband soon 
died, and then she was only queen of Scot- 
land. She returned to Edinburgh and lived in 
the famous Holyrood Palace. Mary's Romish 
friends were now desirous of making her queen 
of England, and made some moves to that 
end." 

" What did Elizabeth say to that .'* " asked 
Gerty. 

" Of course she did not like such pretensions 
at all," said I, " and so she made a prisoner of 
beautiful Mary, having her conveyed from one 
pleasant castle to another, where she could 
exert no power, for nineteen years. The story 
of her confinement is as interesting as a novel, 
and I hope you will read it when you are older. 
Walter Scott has woven some of the romantic 
incidents of her life into his novel entitled 
* The Abbott,' and gives a faithful picture of 
the poor, but charming queen. At the end 
of the nineteen years beautiful Mary's head 
was cut off, and she was released from her 
earthly troubles." 

" Did Queen Elizabeth do this } " Lily asked 
with interest. 

" A good many think she ordered the execu- 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. 107 

tion, but she said it was done contrary to 
her wishes, and pretended to be sorry for it. 
EHzabeth Hved and reigned sixteen years after 
this, and when she died in 1603, Mary's son, 
who was born at Holyrood, became king of 
England and Scotland. He is called James 
the First of England, and James the Sixth of 
Scotland." 

"Was he a Romanist like his mother } " asked 
Gerty. 

" No. He was educated in Scotland, and 
was not much under his mother's influence. 
One great event of his reign was the transla- 
tion of the Bible in the year 161 1." 

Gerty now looked on the hbrary shelves, and 
said she wondered whether the great Bible 
there was King James's. 

" Read the title," said I. 

" The Holy Bible. An exact Reprint of the 
Editio7z of 1611," she read. 

" Yes," said I, '' that is the Bible, just as it 
was printed then. If you examine it, you will 
find very little difference between it and the 
copies in common use. Some of the words are 
not spelled as we spell them now, and it seems 
as though the letters u and v, and i and/, had 
changed places, but though, as you say, it looks 
funny, the sense is the same." 



I08 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

"We must hear a little more about Eliza- 
beth, papa," said Gerty. 

" I have only to add," said I, " that her reign 
was very long and is considered the Golden 
Age of England. She was a very plain woman 
in appearance, and somewhat vain, but she was 
a great sovereign. It is, however, rather the 
large number of distinguished statesmen, sol- 
diers, and scholars who were about her, which 
gives the period its exalted place in the world's 
history. Can you now give me the names of 
the three queens of whom we have been talk- 
ing ? " 

" I can ! " exclaimed Gerty. " Bloody Mary, 
Good Queen Bess, and Mary Queen of Scots." 

" Right," said I. '' And now that we have 
done let me say, that when you wish an interest- 
ing book to read you will find some more about 
Queen Elizabeth and her times, in Sir Walter 
Scott's story of ' Kenilworth.' If you should 
ever visit London, go to the beautiful West- 
minster Abbey, and then you will be interested, 
as your papa was once, in examining the mon- 
uments and reclining statues of all the Three 
Queens." 





CHAPTER XII. 

THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. 

THE PURITANS. 

The Puretan would be judged by the Word of God. 

John Seldon, a. d. 1650. 

iHY have we had no talks about our 
own country ? " Gerty asked her papa 
one morning. " Surely it would be ' 
very interesting to learn all about it. We have 
spoken several times of its discovery in 1492 
by Christopher Columbus, but to what has oc- 
curred during the three centuries since that 
time we have hardly referred." 

" This is a very good time for us to take up 
our own history," I replied, " for more reasons 
than one. Perhaps you saw something in the 
book on the library table the other day, about 
* Forefather's Day.' Can either of you tell me 
what day that is .-* " 

" I saw the book," Gerty replied, " and I 
remember that it spoke of the twentieth of De- 
cember as ' Forefather's Day.' " 



no SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" It is SO called," I continued, " because on 
that day in the year 1620 the Puritan fathers 
of New England landed at Plymouth, on Cape 
Cod, in what is now the State of Massachusetts. 
It was, as you notice, during the reign of King 
James the First, of whom we just spoke. We 
shall talk to-day about the Puritans in England, 
and shall naturally refer to the history of Amer- 
ica ; but as it was a hundred and fifty years 
after the landing of the Pilgrims that our 
government was formed, its history is hardly 
old enough to take its place among the Ages." 

"Please tell us about the Puritans, then, 
papa," said Lily. 

" But who were the ' Pilgrims ' } I notice you 
spoke just now of them," said Gerty. " Were 
they Puritans .'* " 

" You have asked a very good question, and 
I am glad to answer it, for many who are much 
older than you, and even some who think they 
know enough to write books, appear not to 
know that the two words do not describe the 
same people. We know that our forefathers 
who lived as long ago as the days of good 
Queen Bess, belonged to the Church of Eng- 
land, and in their worship used a book of prayer 
almost the same that is now used in the Epis- 
copal Church in America." 




LEYDEN STREET, PLYMOUTH, MASS. See page no. 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. HI 

" Oh, I knew that," exclaimed Lily, " for I 
have read parts of the little Prayer-book that 
you used when you were in England, and all 
the difference I could see was, that instead of 
the prayer for the President, there are prayers 
for Queen Victoria and her family." 

" Well," I continued, " as long ago as the 
year 1550, which was in the reign of Edward 
the Sixth, a certain clergyman named John 
Hooper refused to be consecrated as bishop in 
the robes prescribed by the Church of England. 
He intended to protest against practices that 
he considered too much like those of the Church 
of Rome." 

" I admire a man who will make such a pro- 
test ! " exclaimed Gerty. 

" So do I," Lily added. 

" You are right. These practices were, 
some of them, at least, very harmless, and 
most good people, nowadays, would think it 
not worth while to protest against them. But 
Hooper and others who sympathized with him 
were strong men, and wished to stop the first 
tendency toward Romanism. When Mary 
reigned he and they removed to Geneva and 
other places for safety, and it was thirteen 
years before the next decisive step was taken. 
In the year 1563 Bishop Coverdale refused to 



112 SE VEN HISTORIC A GES. 

subscribe to the liturgy and ceremonies of the 
Church of England, and four years afterwards 
many of the Puritan clergymen separated them- 
selves from the Church of England entirely. 
It was from the last class that the ' Pilgrim 
Fathers ' came. So you see that the Puritans 
were members of the Church of England, while 
the Pilgrims were not." 

" That is very plain," said Gerty. " But I 
should have supposed that some effort would 
have been made to keep these people from 
going out of their Church." 

" There were cruel laws enacted against 
them," I answered, " and they were persecuted, 
but their numbers continually increased, so 
that there were many thousands of ' Brownists ' 
in England besides those who had gone to 
America." 

" Who were the ' Brownists,' " asked Gerty. 

" One of the preachers who separated from 
the Church of England was Robert Brown, and 
his name was afterwards given to those who 
agreed with him in his views. Here is a little 
book of the period, in which the word Puritan 
is spelled Puretan, and from that you can see 
the origin of the name. It meant that those 
who held it longed for purity in themselves, 
and to have the whole Church /^/r^." 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. II3 

" I think such persons ought not to be 
troubled by persecutions," said Gerty. 

" Ovi^t anybody be persecuted ? " asked Lily. 

" No," I replied. " All persecution is wrong. 
But it made the Puritans all the more strong, 
and Mr. Carlyle, who is a very forcible writer, 
and admires the Puritans, says they were the 
last heroes of the world, and believed ' That 
an Almighty Justice does verily rule this 
world ; that it is good to fight on the Lord's 
side, and bad to fight on the devil's side.' " 

" We all believe that, papa," said Lily ; " are 
we all heroes } " 

" It is not the belief that makes us heroes," 
I replied, " but it is the way in which we meet 
persecution. If we were to be persecuted for 
our belief, and were to suffer heroically, we too 
should be heroes. But you must let me go on 
with my story. In 1620 the Pilgrims landed 
in America. The struggles between the Cav- 
aliers and the Puritans in England did not 
stop, however, when they sailed away on the 
Mayflower. 

" Who were the * Cavaliers' } " asked Lily. 

"Those who supported the established 
Church were called Cavaliers, and the mem- 
bers of the other party, because they wore short 
hair. Roundheads. Five years after the Pil- 



114 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

grims sailed, King James the First died, and 
his son Charles the First became king. The 
troubles between the Cavaliers and Roundheads 
grew worse. They were not confined by any 
means to religious affairs. The Puritans said 
they wished to see purity in the government 
also. Wars followed, and during these Oliver 
Cromwell, an officer in the army of the Round- 
heads came into great prominence. He was a 
very earnest and forcible man, and, though 
his character has been bitterly assailed by 
many enemies, Mr. Carlyle places him above 
all the heroes of Greece and Rome, saying that 
he ' was the soul of the Puritan revolt, without 
whom it had never been a revolt transcendently 
memorable and an epoch in the world's his- 
tory.' The result of the wars was that King 
Charles was defeated, and beheaded in the 
year 1649. Oliver Cromwell then became 
ruler with the title of Protector, instead of 
King." 

" Did Cromwell rule England long .? " asked 
Gerty. 

"No," I replied. "He died in 1658, and in 
1660, a son of the late king took his place on 
the throne of England as Charles the Second. 
He was a dissipated man, and ruled very badly. 
He died in 1685, and was succeeded by his 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND. I15 

brother, who is called James the Second. 
James was another bad ruler, and in 1688 was 
obliged to give up the throne, and the line of 
sovereigns of the Stuart family, to which Mary- 
Queen of Scots, the two Charleses and two 
Jameses belonged, ended. Now let us return 
to our Pilgrims. Where did we leave them } " 

"Why, we left them separated from the 
Church of England, on the cold shores of Ply- 
mouth, in December, 1620," Gerty promptly 
answered. 

" Yes, there they were," I continued. 
*' Gerty, will you read this paragraph which I 
have marked in one of Mr. Carlyle's essays. 
They had come over to America on the May- 
flower, remember." 

Gerty read, " Thou little Mayflower hadst in 
thee a veritable Promethean spark ; the life 
spark of the largest Nation on our Earth, — so 
we may already name the Transatlantic Saxon 
Nation. They were seeking leave to hear 
sermons in their own method, these Mayflower 
Puritans ; a most honest, indispensable search : 
and yet like Saul the son of Kish, seeking a 
small thing, they found this unexpected great 
thing. Honor to the brave and true; they 
verily, we say, carry fire from Heaven, and have 
power that themselves dream not of. Let all 



1 1 6 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

men honor Puritanism, since God has so hon- 
ored it." 

" I am sure Mr. Carlyle thinks as highly of 
our forefathers as we can," said Gerty, as she 
laid down the volume. " I don't understand 
what he means by a ' Promethean spark.' " 

" If you will open the ' Dictionary of Noted 
Names of Fiction,' and read you will find that 
Prometheus was one of the heroes of the old 
Mythology of Greece who is said to have made 
men of clay, and then to have given them life 
in some way by stealing fire from heaven, 
Shakespeare says in ' Love's Labor's Lost ' 
of women's eyes, that 

* They sparkle still the right Promethean fire,' 

meaning that they interest, excite, stimulate, 
those who look at them. As I glance into the 
three pairs of little girls' eyes before me, I 
think Shakespeare was right. Mr. Carlyle 
means that the Pilgrims were the ones who 
gave the first life to the American nation." 

" But they did not make the first settlement 
here, did they 1 " asked Lily. 

" No, my dear. Mr. Carlyle says very truly 
in another place that though, ' It was properly 
the beginning of America, there were strag- 
gling settlers before ; some material as of a body 
was there ; but the soul of it was this 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLAND, llj 

Puritanism was only despicable, laughable then ; 
but nobody can manage to laugh at it now. It 
is one of the strongest things under the sun at 
present,' " 

" Please tell us about some of the settlers 
who came to America before the Pilgrims," 
said Gerty. 

" Do, please do, tell us about Pilgrim," said 
Pearl, who had been too drowsy to attend to 
the previous conversation, and had only waked 
up in time to hear Gerty's last word. 

" Papa isn't talking about your * Pilgrim's 
Progress,' " said Lily, seeing Pearl's mistake. 

*' Spain was the first to send colonies to this 
country," I resumed, " and we have talked of 
what Pizzaro and Cortes did in Mexico and 
Peru. Spain made the first settlement on our 
own coast, at St. Augustine, in Florida, but the 
power of Spain declined, and her colonies did 
not thrive. Next Portugal colonized Brazil, 
and settlers from France came to Canada, and 
Louisiana. There was an English settlement 
also at Jamestown, in Virginia, as early as 1607, 
and New York was settled by the Dutch in 
161 3, but we have no time to study these in 
detail now. For a hundred years all the set- 
tlers in what is now the United States were 
loyal to England. They were of very different 



Il8 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

origin and character, for there were the Puritans 
in the East, the Romanists in Maryland, the 
Quakers in Pennsylvania, the Dutch in New- 
York, and those who still adhered to the Church 
of England in Virginia." 

" The inhabitants were of as varied origin 
and religious views as was possible," said 
Gerty. 

" A little more than a hundred years ago all 
the colonies determined that it was best to be 
no longer governed by the king of England, and 
after issuing in a solemn way, a document 
called the " Declaration of Independence," they 
went to war, and at last were acknowledged .to 
be a free and independent nation." 

" Which I hope we shall always be," said 
Gerty. 

" So do I," said Lily. 

" And me too ! " exclaimed little Pearl, not 
knowing what she wished, but only anxious to 
be with her sisters. 





CHAPTER XIII. 
THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRANCE. 

A GREAT PALACE AND A GREAT KING. 

Oh, that deceit should dwell 
In such a gorgeous palace. 

Romeo and yuliei. 

F you will look back at the first chapter 
of our talks about the Ages you will see 
that Gerty began our pleasant task by 
making some mistaken remarks on the Age of 
Pericles, and that we were on the cars at the 
time. We were on our way to the Thanksgiv- 
ing turkey then, and now, as we begin to speak 
of the last one of our Seven Ages, we are just 
ready for another railway trip, for the President 
has called us to give thanks again, and we are 
looking forward with joy to a meeting of uncles 
and aunts, nieces and nephews, grandpapa and 
grandmamma, granddaughters and grandsons, 
and brothers and sisters, about the central 
home table. While we have chatted in our 
library the various members of the circle which 
is now to be formed again, have looked down 



120 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

upon the world from the tops of the Green and 
White Mountains in their native land, from the 
frosty old Alps in Switzerland, and the lofty 
Grampians of Scotland. In their travels they 
have crossed lake and ocean, have shot down 
the rapids of the St. Lawrence and the arrowy 
Rhone, have sailed among the beauties of the 
picturesque Rhine and the romantic Hudson. 
They have crossed the great prairies of America 
and the wet lowlands of Holland. One of them 
has journeyed several thousand miles to see the 
sun darkened, and the moon refusing to give 
her light. Another walking through the gay 
palaces to which the French resort, has seen 
the riches of Versailles, that wonderful creation 
of the wonderful monarch of whom we shall 
now speak. 

I had hinted to the girls that this was to be 
our subject, and several times they had eagerly 
inquired when I should begin. To-day the 
wind whistled among the trees, but the sun 
shone very brightly through the western win- 
dows as we gathered around the library fire. 

" We have talked about Greece, Italy, Ger- 
many, Spain, and England," said I, " and now 
we have something to say about France. We are 
to speak of a little boy king who became very 
celebrated, ruled a great nation, was engaged 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRANCE. 121 

in many wars, and built one of the greatest 
palaces of the world. We have spoken several 
times of the date at which the Pilgrims landed 
at Plymouth, as it helps us remember other 
dates. Eighteen years after that event, the 
queen of France became the mother of a little 
boy. She was so glad and the people were so 
glad that they called him God-given." 

" I thought all babies were given by God," 
said Lily. 

*' In one sense they are," said I, " but to 
return to our baby-prince. When he was five 
years old his father, Louis XIII., died, and 
he became king of France. He could not 
govern the country at that age, of course, and 
therefore his mother, who was named Anne, 
and an Italian named Mazarin managed affairs 
for him." 

" What did the little fellow do, while his 
mother and the Italian were governing France 
for him } " asked Gerty. 

" What was his name } " asked Lily. " You 
forgot to tell us, papa." 

" His name was Louis," said I, " and as his 
father was the thirteenth of the name among 
the French kings, our hero was called Louis 
XIV. You ask what he did. He ought to 
have been studying, but he was not taught 



122 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

many things. He was allowed to play, and 
especially with guns and drums. It must have 
been pretty noisy at St. Germain, where he 
lived, for he was a vain, proud, and stubborn 
boy, and when he wished to drum, I think he 
would have done it loud and long. He was 
forced to sleep on worn and ragged sheets, and 
was not allowed to dress so richly as many 
princes dress, because Mazarin was avaricious, 
and loved to save money. Boys who are 
brought up stingily by their parents often turn 
out spendthrifts, and we shall see that when 
Louis became older he spent his money very 
lavishly. During this time France was very 
much disturbed by riots and rebellions, and 
the poor little king was obliged to wander from 
place to place, and often to occupy very poor 
quarters. He was not able to live peaceably 
in Paris, which is the capital of France, until 
after he was fourteen years old." 

" That is very different from the life I sup- 
posed young kings led," said Gerty. 

" So I supposed," said I. " Little princes 
and kings often have very hard times indeed. 
The trouble this little Louis had, made him 
long for quiet, and determined him to make 
his people behave themselves better, too. This 
was one reason why he built the great palace 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRANCE. 123 

I spoke of, and it led him to rule the people 
very strictly also. When he came to live in 
Paris he declared himself of age, but he still 
remained very much under the influence qf 
Mazarin, who was a Romish cardinal." 

" I do not know what a cardinal is," said 
Gerty. 

" I supposed you did not," I replied, " but 
I tell you some things which you do not fully 
understand, in order that you may be led to 
think and ask questions. You may ask auntie, 
or look in the dictionary, if you do not under- 
stand any word I use. I told you Louis had 
not been thoroughly educated, and Cardinal 
Mazarin took advantage of his ignorance. The 
young king had good sense, however, and a 
sound judgment." 

" Was Louis ever married } " Gerty asked. 

" Yes, in 1660, when he was twenty- two years 
old, he married a young lady named Maria 
Theresa, who was descended from Philip II. of 
Spain and Charles V. of Germany. Louis him- 
self was descended from the de' Medici family, 
to which Leo X. belonged. Maria was hand- 
some, and good-natured, but of no great intel- 
lect. She was just of her husband's age, and 
though he did not love her much, he treated 
her better than most kings have treated their 
wives." 



124 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

" Well," said Lily, " how did Louis govern 
after he was married ? " 

"The next year after, that is in 1661," said 
I, " Cardinal Mazarin died, and then Louis 
determined to be king in reality, and he began 
to show great force of character, as well as love 
of order and power." 

" How did he show these traits ? " asked 
Gerty. 

" He did so in a variety of ways," said I. 
" When you read the history of his times, you 
will find that he was engaged in many wars. 
After each war there was a peace, and to help 
you learn about the wars, I will now give you 
the names of some of the treaties of peace. 
There were the 

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668, 

Peace of Nimegueiiy in 1678, 

Treaty of Ratisbon in 1684, 

Peace of Rys wick, in lOgy, 

Treaty of Utrecht, hi 171 3, and 

Treaty of Radstadt, in 1714." 

" Oh ! papa," exclaimed Lily, " we can never 
learn anything about these hard names ! " 

" Lily," said Gerty, " I will tell you how to 
learn all about them. We can find them all 
mentioned in Miss Edwards's History of France, 
I suppose, and we can learn a great deal more 



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THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRANCE, 1 25 

in larger histories, or in some encyclopaedia. 
At least, I intend to search and see." 

" Just right," said I, " I wish you to know 
who made the treaties I have mentioned, and 
what they had been fighting about before the 
peace was made. Now there were in France, 
during the reign of Louis XIV., a great many 
distinguished men of letters, warriors, states- 
men, and philosophers, and these were brought 
near the king to help carry out his grand designs. 
I told you he built a great palace. He was born 
at St. Germain, near Paris, which had been the 
home of the kings of France for many, many 
years. He did not like the old place, however, 
and as soon as he was married began to build 
his great palace at Versailles. There he laid 
out elegant grounds, and made drives, lakes, 
and fountains which cost the French people, 
immense amounts of money." 

** Did you see this palace t " asked Lily. 

" Yes," I replied, " I went all through the 
grounds, and all over the palace. I did not see 
the fountains play, for they cost thousands of 
dollars every time they are shown, and are 
therefore only allowed to play once a month, 
on Sunday." 

" I think it must be a grand sight," said 
Gerty. " I saw a picture of them in " Appleton's 



126 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

Journal " the other day, and I wish I could see 
them really." 

" But you would have to stay away from 
church," Lily mildly suggested. 

" I did not think of that," Gerty replied, "but 
I think I should like to see them, anyhow," 

" I should like to give you an idea of the size 
of the palace at Versailles," said I. " One side 
of it is a quarter of a mile long, and it is full of 
splendid rooms, containing pictures, statues, and 
other costly ornaments in great profusion. But 
I must change the subject. Shakespeare says : 
* The evil that men do lives after them,' which 
is true in the case of the great Louis XIV. 
You have heard of the Huguenots " — 

" Oh yes ! " Gerty interrupted me by exclaim- 
ing. " Here is a book that tells all about them." 

" I remember hearing that little cousin Bertha, 
was called de la Vergne, because her mother's 
ancestors were Huguenots, but I never knew 
what Huguenots, were," added Lily. 

" Huguenots were French Protestants," I ex- 
plained. " Although Louis was a Romanist, he 
found these people so devotedly patriotic that 
he did not disturb them for many years. But 
after he had reigned forty-two years, he r.evoked 
the laws that gave them protection in their re- 
ligion. Finding that he could not make Roman- 
ists of them, he gave his people power to im- 



THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRANCE. 12/ 

prison, torture, and kill them. This caused a 
terrible time. Forty or fifty thousand Hugue- 
nots fled to England, where they became valu- 
able citizens. Seven hundred of their churches 
were destroyed, and a very large number of the 
people were cruelly put to death. Louis thought 
he had made France all Romish, but his country 
had sustained a great loss, and it will always be 
a black spot on his character." 

" How many terrible events we do read of in 
history ! " exclaimed Gerty. 

"This was a religious disturbance," said I, 
" and you remember that we found that such 
are the most bloody of all wars or revolutions." 

" I remember," said Gerty, " St. Barthol- 
omew's Day, the Sicilian Vespers, and the Mas- 
sacre of St. Brice. They were all terrible." 

" Now," said I, " we must end our talks about 
the Ages, and I will give you the names of some 
of the celebrated men and women who lived in 
the Golden Age of France. Louis XIV. reigned 
from 1643 to 1 71 5, and it was one of the longest, 
as well as one of the most despotic reigns any 
sovereign has ever had." 

" Now papa, please give us the names you 
spoke of," said Gerty. 

" There was Cardinal Richelieu, who died 
when Louis was four years old ; Cardinal Maza- 
rin, of whom we have spoken ; the Prince of 



128 SE VEN HISTORIC A GES. 

Conde ; Colbert ; Louvois ; Turenne ; William 
of Orange ; Charles the Second, king of Eng- 
land ; Madame de Maintenon ; the Marchioness 
de Montespan ; Madame de Sevigne ; Corneille ; 
Racine ; Moli^re ; La Fontaine ; Boileau ; Bos- 
suet ; Bourdaloue ; Massillon ; and Fenelon. 
I wish you would make a list of these names 
on the left hand side of a sheet of paper, then 
find out what each one was distinguished for, 
and when he was born and died. Write this 
information after each name thus :- — 

" * La Fontaine, poet, writer of fables, — born 
1621, died 1695." 

" * Bossuet, orator, theologian, — born 1627, 
died 1704.' " 

" I can do that, papa," said Gerty. 

" When you have done it all," said I, " bring 
your papers to me. I think you will find it will 
teach you a great deal about the times of Louis 
XIV. in a very pleasant way." 

" I wish you had told us to do that for all the 
Ages," said Lily. 

" You dear little girl ! " I exclaimed. " You 
are always anticipating me. I was just about 
to advise you to do the same for each period 
'we have discussed. When you need help go to 
your teachers or come to me. But we must 
•stop. We are done with all of our Ages, but 
I hope you will not forget them." 





CHAPTER XIV. 

CHARACTERS IN THE SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

Enough has been said, I think, to show that history contains no mean 
revelations. — Dr. Arnold. 

NCE more the children are gathered 
around the hbrary table, and they have 
not forgotten the request made of them 
that was mentioned in the last chapter. They 
have each brought papers covered with names 
and dates and records of facts. It is surprising 
to find how much interested they have become 
in learning more about the characters we have 
talked of. 

Gerty says she has studied the life of King 
John of England, of whom we have not spoken. 
She says she thought he was a good king, be- 
cause he signed the " Magna Charta," but that 
she found him to have been one of the meanest 
kings England ever had. You see Gerty read 
more than the subjects we have talked about, 
and she says she is glad she has, for otherwise 
she would not have known what the " Magna 



130 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

Charta " was, and we read about it often. She 
says it protects Englishmen against the abuses 
of the king's power as feudal superior, and that 
King John signed it in 12 15, only because he 
was forced to do so. 

Gerty was more especially interested, how- 
ever, in Mary Queen of Scots, and has read 
about her a good deal. 

Lily thinks that Elizabeth was a great and 
wonderful queen, and is drawn towards her 
much more than towards any of the other 
characters. So I think it will be with all who 
read this little book. One will like one char- 
acter, and another will like a different one. I 
do not expect all to be equally interested in 
every Age even, though it is well for us all to 
be informed about all parts of history. 

In this book we have only made a beginning, 
but we have learned something about a number 
of different countries, and several periods of 
history that we often read of and hear men- 
tioned. I shall now end with a list of the prin- 
cipal characters we have talked of, and will 
give the dates at which they lived, just as I re- 
quested the children to write them. I shall 
also give the page of this book upon which 
they are each mentioned. 

Look over the list, and see if you would not 



CHARACTERS. I3I 

like to know more about some character. If 
you find such an one read about him in a good 
history. See what he did more than you al- 
ready know. See what he was remarkable for, 
what men and women were about him, and 
what influence they all had. It is very likely 
this will lead you to read a good deal, as you 
notice one name after another about which you 
have curiosity, and thus you will find yourself 
studying history without thinking that it is 
study, and your fund of historical information 
will increase in a very pleasant way. Gerty 
has just told me that her Roman history is as 
interesting as a story-book, which is very true, 
for it is a true story about men who have really 
lived and acted. Is it not more rational to like 
to study what is true than what is false, — to 
read some history rather than nothing but 
novels and other stories that are made by 
men 1 

Some stories are very good and very interest- 
ing, and I do not mean that we should not 
read them at all, but that we shall do well to 
read a good deal of history also. 

Now I will give you, as I promised, the list of 
all the kings, queens, barbarians, and civilized 
people whose names have been mentioned in 
this book. Besides, I shall add a table of one 



132 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

hundred events in the history of the world. If 
you can commit so many dates to memory, it 
will be very well to do so. 

LIST OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE SEVEN 
HISTORIC AGES. 

Alaric, king of the West Goths and con- 
queror of the Roman Empire, died A. d. 410. 
Page 33. 

Alfred, called the Great, king of England, 
born 849, died 901. Page 49. 

Alcuin, an English scholar, born at York 
about 725, died at Tours, France, in 804. 

Anaxagoras, an illustrious Greek philosopher, 
born B. c. 500, died 428 b. c. Page 10. 

Marc Antony, a Roman triumvir, and friend 
of Julius Caesar, born b. c. 83, died 30 b. c. 
Page 23. 

Roger Ascham, the learned teacher of Queen 
Elizabeth, born 15 15, died 1568. Page 1 01. 

Attila, king of the Huns, called " The 
Scourge of God," died in 453. Page 37. 

Augustus, emperor of Rome, from b. c. 31 
to A. D. 14, born b. c. 62^, died a. d. 14. 
Page 24. 

Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, chancellor 
of England under James I., and one of the 



CHAR A CTERS. 1 3 3 

greatest philosophers of the world, born 1561, 
died 1626. 

" Black Prince," Edward, Prince of Wales, 
son of Richard III., born 1330, died 1376. 
Page 73. 

Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux, a French poet, 
satirist, and critic, born 1636, died 171 1. Page 
128. 

James Benigne Bossuet, a French bishop, 
preacher, and writer, born 1627, died 1704. 
Page 128. 

Louis Bourdaloue, a French Jesuit preacher, 
born 1632, died 1704. Page 128. 

Marcus Junius Brutus, a Roman warrior, 
and murderer of Caesar, born b. c. 85, died 
B. c. 42. 

Anne Bullen, wife of King Henry VIII., born 
1507, died 1536. Her name is also spelled 
Anne Boleyn. Page 21. 

Caius Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome, con- 
queror of Gaul, born b. c. 100, assassinated 
B. c. 44. Page 20. 

Canute the Great, king of Denmark and 
England, born about 995, died 1035. Page 53. 

Catiline, Lucius Sergius, a Roman conspira- 
tor, died b. c. 62. Page 29. 

Charlemagne, emperor of France, born 742, 
died 814. Page 45. 



134 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

Charles IL, king of England, born 1630, 
died 1685. Page 128. 

Charles V., emperor of Germany, and king 
of Spain, as Charles I., born 1500, died 1558. 
Page ^y. 

Marcus Tullius Cicero, a learned Roman 
orator and statesman, born b. c. 106, died b. 
c. 43. Page 24. 

Jean Baptiste Colbert, a French financial 
statesman, born 1619, died 1683. Page 128. 

Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, 
born 1435, died 1506. Page yS. 

Louis Conde, called the Great, a French 
warrior and politician, born 1621, died 1686. 
Page 28. 

Pierre Corneille, called the Great, a French 
dramatic poet, born 1606, died 1684. 

Cornelius-Nepos, a Latin historian who 
flourished at the time of Augustus. Page 29. 

Hernando Cortez, a Spanish warrior, who 
conquered Mexico, born 1485, died 1554. 
Page ^^. 

Oliver Cromwell, the great Puritan leader, 
born 1599, died 1658. Page 114. 

Damon, a Greek musician of the time of 
Pericles. Page 10. 

Don Armado, a fantastical Spaniard in 



CHARACTERS. 1 35 

Shakespeare's "Love's Labor's Lost." Page 
102. 

Edward IIL, one of the Norman kings of 
England, of the Plantagenet line, born 13 12, 
died 1377. Page 70. 

Egbert, king of England, who united the 
Heptarchy into one kingdom, reigned from 
802 to 839, and died about 839. Page 47. 

Thomas Bruce, earl of Elgin and Kincar- 
dine, collector of Grecian antiquities, born 
1766, died 1 84 1. Page 12. 

Elizabeth, queen of England, daughter of 
Henry VHL and Anne Bullen, born 1533, died 
1603. Page 96. 

Philip Faulconbridge, a son of King Richard 
I, and one of the characters in Shakespeare's 
"King John." Page 91. 

Francis de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon, a 
pious French archbishop, author of " Telema- 
que," born 165 1, died 171 5. Page 128. 

Ferdinand V. of Spain, husband of Isabella 
of Castile, born 1452, died 15 16. Page 92. 

Francis L of France, born 1494, died 1547. 
Page 94. 

Galileo Galilei, a distinguished Italian as- 
tronomer, born 1564, died 1642. Page 81. 

Genseric, king of the Vandals from 429 to 
477, born 406, died 477. Page 39. 



136 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

Godfrey de Bouillon, duke of Lorraine, cru- 
sader, and first Christian king of Jerusalem, 
born about 1058, died iioo. Page 6y. 

Guatimozin, last king of Mexico, murdered 
by Cortez, 1522. Page 91. 

Claude de Lorraine, first duke of Guise, an 
illustrious French warrior, born 1496, died 
1550. Page 104. 

Harold IL, king of England, fell at Hastings, 
1066. Page 56. 

Henry VHL, king of England from 1509 to 
1547, born 1 49 1, died 1547. Page 96. 

Hezekiah, king of Judah from b. c. 726 to 
B. c. 698, born about b. c. 75 1, died b. c. 698. 
Page 15. 

Homer, called the Father of Song, the great 
Greek epic poet, flourished probably about 1000 
B. c. Page 28. 

Isabella, queen of Castile, called the Catho- 
lic, wife of Ferdinand of Aragon, born 1451, 
died 1 504. Page 92. 

James H., king of England from 1685 to 
1688, grandson of James I., born 1633, died 
1701. Page 115. 

John, king of England, supposed to have 
murdered Prince Arthur in 11 99, signed the 
Magna Charta in 1215, was born 1166, died 
1 2 16. Page 129. 



CHAR A CTERS. 1 3 7 

Jugurtha, king of Numidia, starved in prison 
by the Romans 104 b. c. Page 29. 

John de la Fontaine, French fabuKst, born 
1621, died 1695; Page 128. 

Leo X., John de' Medici, Pope of Rome, 
patron of the arts, born 1475, died 1521. Page 

79. 

Marcus ^miUus Lepidus, a Roman triumvir, 

died B. c. 13. Page 24. 

Livy (Titus Livius Patavinus), Roman his- 
torian, born B. c. 59, died A. d. 17. Page 

29- 

Louis XIIL, son of Henry IV. and Maria de' 

Medici, king of France from 16 10 to 1643, 

born 1 60 1, died 1643. Page 121. 

Louis XIV., the most magnificent of the 
Bourbon kings of France, reigned from 1643 to 
1715, son of Louis XIIL and Anne of Austria, 
born 1638, died 1715. Page 121. 

Francis, Marquis de Louvois, minister of war 
under Louis XIV., enemy of Colbert, coun- 
seled the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
born 1 64 1, died 1691. Page 128. 

Martin Luther, the great German reformer, 
born 1483, died 1546. Page 75. 

Mohammed, son of Abdallah, of the family 
which had charge of the sacred temple of 
Mecca, claimed descent from Ishmael, was an 



138 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

Arabian prophet, born 570 or 571, died 632. 
Page 64. 

Frances d'Aubigne, Madame de Maintenon, 
was secretly married to Louis XIV., and exerted 
a great influence over him for thirty years, born 
1635, died 1719. Page 128. 

Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter of Philip 
IV. of Spain, and wife of Louis XIV. before 
Madame de Maintenon, born 1638, died 1683. 
Page 122. 

Mary of Lorraine, mother of Mary Stuart, 
Queen of Scots, was a daughter of Claude, 
duke of Guise, and wife of James V. of Scot- 
land, died in 1560. Page 104. 

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, born in 1542, 
was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle, 1587. 
Page 104. 

Jean Baptiste Massillon, the most celebrated 
pulpit orator of France, born 1663, died 1742. 
Page 128. 

Julius Mazarin, a French cardinal, was suc- 
cessor of Richelieu as prime minister, born 
1602, died 1661. Page 115. 

Catherine de' Medici, wife of Henry II. and 
mother of Charles IX., king of France, born 
15 19, died 1589. Page 105. 

Michael Angelo Buonarroti, a celebrated Ital- 
ian painter, born 1474, died 1564. Page 82. 



CHARACTERS. 1 39 

Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Moliere, the best 
comic dramatist of France, born 1622, died 
1673. Page 128. 

Frances, Marchioness de Montespan, one of 
the favorites of Louis XIV., born 1641, died 
1707. Page 128. 

Montezuma, emperor of Mexico from 1436 
or 1438 to 1471, died in 1471. Page 90. 

Moth, a playful and versatile page in Shakes- 
peare's play of "Love's Labor's Lost." Page 
102. 

Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), a love poet of 
the Romans, born b. c. 43, died a. d. 18. 

Pericles, the greatest statesman of Athens, 
born about 500 b. c, died 429 b. c. Page 5. 

Peter the Hermit, preacher of the first cru- 
sade, born about 1050, died 11 15. Page 63. 

Peter of Pisa, the venerable instructor of 
Charlemagne in grammar. Page 46. 

Phidias, a Greek sculptor and the most cele- 
brated artist of antiquity, born about b. c. 490, 
died B. c. 432. Page 12. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the most remark- 
able men of the time of Queen Elizabeth, born 
1552, died 1618. Page 103. 

Raphael Sanzio, a celebrated Italian painter, 
born 1483, died 1520. Page 82. 

Armand Jean du Plessis Richelieu, a French 



140 SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

cardinal and prime minister, born 1585, died 
1642. Page 127. 

Sallust (Caius Sallustius Crispus), a cele- 
brated Roman historian, born b. c. Z6, died 
B. c. 34. Page 29. 

Scipio Africanus the Elder, one of the great- 
est men of his age, was a Roman general, born 
B. c. 234, died about b. c. 183. Page 19. 

Sir Walter Scott the great novelist and poet, 
was born in 1771, died 1832. Page 106. 

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, died about 
B. c. 700. Page 15. 

Madame Marie de Rabutin-Chantal Mar- 
chioness de Sevigne, celebrated letter-writer, 
born 1626, died 1696. Page 128. 

William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist 
who has written in the English language, born 
1564, died 1616. Page 103. 

Socrates, a celebrated Athenian philosopher, 
born B. c. 468, died 399 b. c. Page 12. 

Edmund Spenser, English poet, author of the 
" Faerie Queene," born about 1553, died 1599. 
Page 103. 

John Tetzel, a Dominican monk who sold 
indulgences in Germany, born about 1450, died 
1 5 19, of the plague. Page 84. 

Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount de 



CHARACTERS. I4I 

Turenne, marshal of France, and general, born 
161 1, died 1675. Page 128. 

Virgil (Publius Virgilius Maro), celebrated 
Roman poet, author of the "^neid," born b. c. 
70, died B. c. 19. Page 28. 

John Wiclif, an English reformer, born about 
1324, died 1384. Page 66. 

William the Conquerer, king of England, 
son of Robert, duke of Normandy, born 1027, 
died 1087. Page 56. 

William the Silent, of Nassau, prince of 
Orange, born 1533, assassinated at the instiga- 
tion of Philip 11. of Spain, 1584. Page 128. 

Edward Young, an English poet, author of 
"Night Thoughts," born 1684, died 1765. Page 

54. 

Zeno of Elea in Greece, a celebrated phi- 
losopher, said to have founded the Eleatic 
school of philosophy, flourished about 500 b. c. 
Page 10. 





ONE HUNDRED DATES. 



ILLUSTRATING THE SEVEN HISTORIC AGES. 

Chinese Empire said to have been founded . .B.C. 2650 

Babylon founded by Nimrod 2100 

Abraham flourished 2000 

Moses flourished 1500 

Trojan War ended 1184 

Sparta a kingdom 1102 

David flourished 1050 

Carthage founded ....... 880 

Olympian era began 776 

Rome founded 753 

Sennacherib's army destroyed 720 

Nebuchadnezzar began to reign in Babylon . . 600 

Solon, archon of Athens 594 

Fall of Tyre 572 

Persian Empire founded by Cyrus .... 559 

Rome a republic ....... 510 

Pericles born at Athens about 500 

Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem . . . 460 

Herodotus born 450 

Socrates died by poison 399 

Alexander the Great bom 356 

Demosthenes died by his own hand .... 322 

Septuagint version of the Bible, in Greek . . . 284 

Punic wars began 265 

Hannibal crossed the Alps 218 

Scipio invaded Africa 204 

Fall and ruin of Carthage 146 



ONE HUNDRED DATES. 



143 



Jugurtha taken prisoner 

Catiline defeated and slain 

Julius Caesar made governor of Gaul 
Second Triumvirate formed by Octavius, Antony, 
Lepidus ....... 

Caesar Augustus, emperor 

Death of Augustus .... 

The crucifixion of our Saviour 
Nero, emperor of Rome 
Jerusalem destroyed by Titus 
Herculaneum and Pompeii destroyed 
Christians persecuted by Domitian 
Christians persecuted by Decius 
Christians persecuted by Diocletian 
Constantine the Great, emperor 
First Council of Nice . 

Huns in Europe 

Rome besieged, taken, and plundered by Alaric 
Genseric in Africa ...... 

Saxons in Britain .... 

Attila retreated to Hungary 
Rome plundered by the Vandals . 
Mohammed flourished 
Saracens took Jerusalem 
Mohammedans landed in Spain 
Charlemagne became sole monarch 
Egbert began to rule England . 
Alfred the Great .... 

America discovered by Icelanders 
Massacre of Danes in England 

Canute the Great 

William the Conquerer became king of England 

First Crusade 

Second Crusade ...... 

Third Crusade ....... 

Fourth Crusade 

Children's Crusade 



106 
62 
58 



and 



43 

30 

D. 14 

33 
54-68 
70 
79 
95 
250 

303 
306 

325 
375 
410 
429 

449 
452 

455 
571-632 

637 

710 

771 

827 

871-901 

100 1 

. 1002 

1017-1035 

. 1066 

1095-1099 

. 1 149 

1 195 
1203, 1204 

1213 



144 



SEVEN HISTORIC AGES, 



Magna Charta granted . 

Fifth Crusade . 

" Sicilian Vespers " 

Popes removed to Avignon 

Chaucer born 

Battle of Cressy . 

Wiclif translated the Bible 

Heretics first burned in England 

Siege of Orleans . 

Printing invented 

Cape of Good Hope discovered 

America discovered by Columbus 

Luther denied the Pope's supremacy 

Pizarro in Peru .... 

William Shakespeare born . 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew . 

Elizabeth, queen of England . 

The Invincible Armada destroyed 

Edict of Nantes 

New York settled by the Dutch 

Pilgrims landed at Plymouth 

Boston settled .... 

Maryland settled . 

Rhode Island colonized 

New Haven settled 

Charles the First executed 

Oliver Cromwell died . 

New Jersey settled . 

Pennsylvania granted to William Penn 

Witches hanged at Salem, Massachusetts 

Louisiana settled ..... 

Anne, queen of England . 

Peter the Great, czar of Russia from 

Georgia colonized .... 

The " Stamp Act " passed . 

Declaration of the Independence of the United 

Independence of the United States acknowledg 



1215 
1228 
1282 
1309 
1328 
1346 
1380 
1401 
1428 
1440 
i486 
1492 
1519 
1533 
1564 

1572 

[558-1603 

1588 

1598 
1614 
1620 
1630 

1633 
1636 

. 1638 

1649 

1658 

1665 

1681 

1692 

. 1699 

1 702 

. 1689-1725 

1732 

. 1765 

States 1776 

ed . 1782 



V Tlie lest concise History of Englisl Literature. 
''Jf tot ^tm to SngU^ij mttxatuxt:' 

By ARTHUR OILMAN, M. A. 

FOR SCHOOL USE. 

New York: Cambridge: 

HURD AND HOUGHTON. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS. 

One volume, i6mo,_pp. 2^1. Price $i.oo. 



THIS book attempts to give, within the compass of two hun- 
dred pages, a suggestive outline sketch of the history of 
English Literature, grouping authors in accordance with the 
development of the language and literature. 

The author has endeavored to follow as closely as possible the 
natural divisions of literary history. He opens the study with 
a brief sketch of the civil history, emphasizing those names and 
dates which serve as a clew to the pupil. 

The chapter on languages of Europe, after stating briefly the 
related and influential languages, gives a philosophic outline of 
the progress of the English language and literature. 

After this preliminary matter, which is clearly and rapidly dis- 
cussed, the substance of the work follows ; each chapter is in- 
troduced by a brief statement of the historic connection, then 
follow biographic sketches of representative writers with a sum- 
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means of a sharp, clearly cut statement, prepared with great 
care, and free from partisan bias. The chapter concludes with 
a sketch of the period out of the material just furnished the 
reader. 

The book has been prepared by an American for American 
students ; hence the American side of English literature has 
been carefully presented, and the publishers are confident that 
it will be found most valuable as an introduction to the study of 
English Literature, and as a handbook of reference. The author 



has never lost sight of the fact that there is an urgent need of a 
small book that can be mastered by the scholar, and so system- 
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From a large number of favorable opinions of this work, the 
few that follow have been selected to indicate the interest that 
it has awakened. 

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Wilbraham, Mass., writes to the publishers under date October 
18,1873:- 

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Oilman's ' First Steps in English Literature,' and prefer it to other similar 
works. Its commendatory features are, its brevity, — condensing the study 
into a single Term's work; its clear and concise historical statement, and 
definition of terms ; its general arrangement into periods ; and the admir- 
able selection of atcthors both English and American. A student fully mas- 
tering this little handbook will not fail to continue his reading in the same 
line." 

Professor B. F. Meek, Professor of English Literature in the 
University of Alabama, under date October 18, 1873, says : — 

"Two years ago this little book was placed in my hands by Professor W. J. 
Vaughn. On reading it I was so much pleased with it that I introduced it as 
a text-book into one of my classes in the University of Alabama. Ojt submit- 
ting it to tJie test of tJte lecture-room, I found that the clearness and concise- 
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able charts, or tabular views, and its typographical aspect, rendered it an excel- 
lent text-book and a good basis for my lectures upon the English language, 
and upon English and American Literature. On my recommendation it has 
been introduced into the course of study of the ' Alabama Central Female 
College' at Tuscaloosa." 

The Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D. D,, a member of the school 
committee of Cambridge, Massachusetts, writes to the author 
under date March 11, 1873, as follows : — 

" I want to put on record my sense of the good work you have done. I 
think it is very desirable that this branch of useful knowledge should be more 
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" Yours sincerely, Alexander McKenzie." 



" Mr. Oilman has prepared a valuable work. I do not know where an equal 
amount of valuable literary information combined with judicious criticism can 
be found in so brief a space." — From Homer B. S^ragtie, Principal of 
A delphi A cademy, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

"The twQi tables or charts, of the Immature and the Mature English 
periods, are alone priceless." — Providence Press. 

'* Its clearness and conciseness, the interesting historical facts introduced as 
closely related to our literature or to the history of our language, the j'udicioTis 
selectio7i of aidhors, and the bold rejection of others by which your work is 
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Librarian of tite A star Library. 

Rev. Edward G. Porter, of the school committee at Lexington, 

Mass., writes to the publishers as follows : — 

" Our last graduating class found it a most attractive book. They seemed 
to study it with more pleasure than any other school book. Its size, its con- 
venient division into natural historic periods, and its simple familiar style, rec- 
ommend it above any other book with which I am acquainted for such a school 
as omrs. We expect to continue the use of the book." 

S. R. Williston, Principal of the High School, Cambridge, 
Mass., says : — 

" I know of no better manual of a brief compass than this. The arrange- 
ment of the charts, the notices of living authors, and the carefully prepared 
bibliography, seem to me fresh and inviting features." 

" I have read it all through. I like your plan, but was particularly pleased 
with the opening chapters. It is the best thing out." —From S. H. Carpen- 
ter, Professor of Logic, Rhetoric, and English Literature, in the University 
of Wisconsin. 

" I think you have accomplished a miracle In making so condensed state- 
ments in so lively and entertaining a style." — Wm. T. Harris, Superijitejtd- 
ent of PiMic Schools, St. Louis, Mo. 

*' ' Oilman's First Steps in English Literature ' has proved a capital little 
guide for my class this year. We think it a great improvement on old text- 
books if properly used, — that is, as a finger-board at the door of the library. 
— Ellen C. Parsons, Lake Erie Seminary, Painesville, O. 

1 A third chart is Included In the seventh and later editions. 



4 

The London (Eng.) Bookseller ■> says: " It is preferable to any similar work 
published in this country. " 

Tlie A tlantic Monthly says : ' ' This little book is a creditable attempt to 
reduce the study of English Literature to the form of a scientific treatise. The 
works which it is designed to supplant have been composed almost entirely of 
details of the lives, and unsatisfactory quotations from the writings of individ- 
ual authors. Mr. Oilman has avoided this error, and has produced a manual 
of unquestionable value 

" The careful charts, introducing each main division of the subject, and the 
Bibliography at the end of the volume, are what will make it especially valua- 
ble to the general reader as a book of reference. 

"American Literature has not been slightingly passed over, as it is so often 
in works of this kind. 

" The general divisions of the subject are, it strikes us, very good and philo- 
sophical." 

" The two ends to be aimed at in an elementary work on English Literature 
are, I am sure, the very ones which this author has set before him, namely, to 
impart the most important information, and to create a taste for such reading 
and study as will lead to a fuller acquaintance with the best English and Amer- 
ican authors. 

" I observe with pleasure the prominence given in this little book to Amer- 
ican writers, — in marked contrast with the pitiful little appendix devoted in 
some treatises to this subject." — From John E. Bradley, A. M., Principal 
of the Albany {IV. V.) Free Academy. 

The New Orleaits Times says: "We have given this little book a careful 
examination, and regard it as decidedly the best guide for beginners in the 
study of the English language that we have seen." 

" The arrangement of the volume is admirable, the style clear and concise, 
the selections excellent, and the whole work so carefully and thoroughly pre- 
pared as to make it an excellent manual for instruction in the outlines of 
English history as well as literature." — New York Observer. 

" Mr. Oilman has excellently perfected in detail what was admirable in 
design, and has produced a work valuable alike for reference by the scholar 
and as a guide to the student." — From, the Christian Union, Henry Ward 
Beecher, Editor. 

"I have long made English literature a matter of instruction in this In- 
stitute, but / have not before seen any book for schools that seems so well 
adapted zs your ' First Steps' to be a delight to both teacher and pupil." — 
From George W. Clarke, Ph. D., Mt. Washington Collegiate Institute, 
New York. 

^^^ The publishers offer special terms for introduction of 
this book, and desire all interested in the subject to address them 
at Cambridge or New York. 








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